Gundam Stars of Eternity
by HyperionGM
Summary: Even in the far flung future of the Stellar Era, mankind continues to squabble and fight amongst themselves. The crew of the EFS Franklin D Roosevelt must now reach allied territory in the midst of the Second Interstellar War after being suddenly attacked by Zeon forces, and against them an increasing array of enemy forces is aiming to stop their quest. [Hiatus]
1. Gundam Rising

AN: And lo a new tale begins.

Honestly I'm on a massive writer's block for my other stories so eh.

Also depression keeps sapping my motivation to even post things sometimes (read: all the time), that and my inconsistent level of wanting to actually post.

So why not an entirely new Gundam story? What could go wrong?

Heavily inspired by Wing Zero Alpha's _Mobile Suit Gundam Alpha_ , the Star Carrier series and the Gundam Stellaris mod among other things.

EDIT: I have been sitting on this one for _months_ so yeah...

Also reviews to help me find grammatical errors are indeed helpful.

* * *

 _"We believed ourselves infallible, that we could take on any opponent sent against us. Then the universe informed us of one thing and reminded us of two others. We were_ not _alone, that complacency drained the effectiveness of even the greatest governments and militaries, and our greatest enemy was ultimately_ ourselves _."-_ Fleet Admiral Johann Ibraham Revil in his memoirs published ten years after the First Interstellar War.

* * *

 _The year is Stellar Era Zero-Two-Seven-Nine._

 _Nearly three hundred years ago mankind declared a new calendar in response to the ending of what is now known simply as the Realization War at the end of the Anno Domini period, where the former sectors of the Earth Dominion were carved out into new star nations._

 _With a grand total of nearly eight hundred total inhabited worlds, varying from several dozen terraformed or human habitable garden planets to worlds boasting a only few dozen biodome or geofront cities as they underwent terraforming processes, in addition to many future colonies and hundreds of space colonies, stations and inhabited asteroids and moons under their control, peace seemed set to reign despite underlying tensions between two opposing factions._

 _The outermost nations forming the Quintipartite Pact, consisting of the Republic of Munzo, later to become the Principality of Zeon, the Cloud Nine Confederacy, Gjallarhorn League, the White Fang Concordat, and the Zodiac Alliance._

 _And their traditional opponents, the 'inner' nations of the United Worlds: The Earth Federation, Orb Union, Republic of Riah, Human Reform League, Southern Sector Alliance, Europa United, the Solaron Union, the Eternia Alliance, Sanc Kingdom, Kingdom of Northernbell, Satelicon United Nations, the Chryse Union, and the Allied Colonies, which was comprised of numerous minor nations pooling together to maintain parity with larger states._

 _The tensions between the United Worlds and the Quintipartite Pact remained high throughout the centuries, with only Orb, the Republic of Krugis, the Sanc Kingdom, Kingdom of Northernbell and the Republic of Riah serving as diplomatic links between the two sides at the worst points._

 _However, the first full scale interstellar war in nearly two centuries since the was not instigated by man, or so it seemed._

 _Seemingly out of nowhere_ alien _warships began striking systems belonging to the United Worlds in SE 0276._

 _Among the numerous weapons deployed by these aliens were several highly modular war mechs utilizing vaguely humanoid torsos placed placed on quadrupedal mobility bases (based vaguely on the aliens themselves), with several variants being optimized for land, aquatic, aerospace, and exoatmospheric warfare respectively, their analogs to numerous forms of human equipment such as tanks, boasting versatility, durability, firepower and reliability previously believed impossible for mechanized weapons of their type they proved intractable to conventional forces, and their close combat abilities proved to be the doom of many armored units unused to fighting enemies that maneuvered in manners they were ill-trained or equipped to deal with, with the handful of victories coming at unacceptably high human costs as even power armor equipped units found themselves either under-armed or not maneuverable enough._

 _In response, development and fielding of Mobile Suits, previously only seriously considered by the Quintipartite Pact, HRL, Sanc and the Allied Colonies was restarted in earnest, with the Earth Federation's Guncannon and the Romefeller Corporation's Leo series entering service with numerous nations as a stopgap until newer designs could supplement both them and the earlier Guntank and Tragos lines._

 _After two years of attrition warfare with the Aliens, since identified as the Argotha, the aggressors simply left human space without explanation, leaving behind seemingly everyone who'd been captured by them on the worlds taken in their brief advance, along with a disturbingly well translated message indicating that their_ **law enforcement** _expedition had been the result of a misunderstanding involving what they believed now to be pirates. Human officials, curious as to why the entire conflict happened, and leery about the Argothans' true military strength in face of the potential revelation that they had faced what amounted to a stellar highway patrol instead of an invasion force, prepared an expedition to locate Argothan space and engage in diplomacy or if necessary launch hit and run attacks on their worlds._

 _On January first SE 0279 however, the Quintipartite Pact, having initially been believed to have been wiped out in the opening weeks of the Human-Argotha War due to a total communications blackout with them, began operation Serpent of Eden, with pact fleets and invasion armies overrunning dozens of systems, it had soon become apparent that they had baited the Argotha into attacking to weaken their adversaries before launching a full-scale attack while the United Worlds licked their wounds in the wake of the withdrawal._

 _In the first week of the Great War, tens of millions were killed by Nuclear Bombardment and attacks using Zeon's deadly G3 gas and other non-conventional weapons, with each member of the pact focusing their attention on their traditional enemies to avoid overlap and to simplify logistics chains. In spite of such overwhelming force, the vast bulk of the UW's units did not break, many trapped but enraged naval squadrons and planetary garrisons fighting to the death in the face of an enemy that was so flippantly willing to violate longstanding rules of war. A far cry from the relatively bloodless Argothan incursion._

 _In an act of desperation in the face of seemingly unbreakable Federation resistance on their front, Zeon performed Operation British, driving a gassed space colony from the Hatte sector into the surface of New Sydney at near relativistic speeds after missing their initial target, the Federation theater HQ on the moon New Torrington due to a simple mathematical error, the resulting destruction devastated the fragile terraforming ecosphere of the planet and shattered the biodome cities, the newly 'christened' tomb world was now totally inhospitable to human life, and organic life in general, and would be impossible to re-terraform with known technology as the colony impact had shattered significant chunks of the planet down to the mantle._

 _Horrified by the actions their military had taken, several Zeon staff officers, many of whom still held Deikumist or Ralist loyalties, risked their lives to transmit the identity of the target for the next attack to the United Worlds, desperate to prevent equivalent retaliatory escalation by the United Worlds._

 _And so, the stage was set for the Battle of Loum._

* * *

 _ **January 15, SE 0279. Loum System, Jump point 4.**_

Ensign Samuel Ajax clutched the control sticks of his RX-77-2A High Mobility Guncannon before flicking through the armaments check screens.

"Anti-missile laser blister capacitor charge, check. 60 mike-mike linear Vulcans, check. 90 mike-mike bullpup machine gun, check. 75 mike-mike shoulder gatlings, check. Anti-fighter missile pods, check. Countermeasure pods, check. EW systems, check. All weapons systems read as functional and loaded." He reported as he looked around, the feed from his suit's head sensors projecting directly into his HMD.

["Roger that, Lancers Four and Five, you are clear for taxi."] The Star Boss stated over comms as the bow elevator doors to the Carrier Battleship _Ise_ 's hangar opened to allow the two Guncannons access to the forward 'runway'. The _Trafalgar_ -class carrier battleship and her sister _Hyuuga_ sat at the core of one of the numerous EFSF battlegroups lining up, waiting to entrap the arriving Zeon forces.

["If this ship were a woman, I'd fuck her"] Lancer Five, Willie Kemp stated their Guncannons marched out to the waiting catapults, the basic neural reading devices common to mobile suit pilot helmets enabling them to walk simply by inputting minor control variances and thinking simultaneously.

"You and me both buddy." He chuckled as they stepped out onto the dark grey 'flight deck' of the gleaming Haze Grey colored Carrier Battleship. "It's like they took a _Magellan_ and made it fifty times sexier."

["Cut the chatter."] Someone ordered.

"Roger." Ajax reliped with a sigh.

Bristling with Megaparticle Guns, Missile cells, torpedo tubes, CIWS mounts, sensors, and laser blisters, the _Ise_ and her sisters did look very much like their _Magellan_ -class half-siblings, though to a lesser degree than the older _Sluys_ -class carrier battleships, which were honestly just stripped down flight one _Magellans_ with a new bow section and two modified cargo pods attached to the sides, upon the arrival of the dedicated _Trafalgars_ and _Jutlands_ they were quickly placed in reserve in favor of them and additional _Antietam_ and _Chitose_ -class escort carriers.

As Lancers Three and Six locked into the catapults as well, Ajax sighed as he regulated his breathing to limit oxygen usage and double checked the seals on his normal suit as he waited.

He didn't have to wait long.

["All forces, we have incoming FTL signatures."] The sensor picket _Pueblo_ reported. Indeed, the faint shimmer of Schenberg drives tearing open holes in the fabric of space time could be seen in the distance. The phenomena could be visually seen across a system in real time, provided one had a powerful enough telescope or other vision system, for reasons that remained poorly understood by conventional science, with entire research labs having been devoted to studying the subsequently named Vashti effect, named after doctor Samuel Vashti, whom first observed it, in earlier decades.

Right now, all _Samuel_ cared about was that they signaled the arrival of Zeon forces. And at the center of the massive field of ripples, signified by the largest individual shimmer, was the colony they were bringing through.

Then a transmission came in across the priority fleetwide channels. From the Flagship _Ananke_.

["This is Admiral Revil to all forces, as you all know, the people of the Zahn system are depending on us, if we fail here, they _will_ die, as will many of the citizens of the Loum system. We must not allow the Pact to make another heinous attack like that which they slaughtered the people of New Sydney with, to say nothing of the hundreds of millions of others who died to poison, chemical, nuclear, and conventional attacks across the United Worlds. This is our duty as soldiers, to protect those who cannot protect themselves from murderous forces hellbent on slaughter in the name of whatever goal their nation sets them out to perform. If you are to fall in the line of duty, know that you died as true heroes, ones worthy of seats in the dining halls of Valhalla, your sacrifices will never be forgotten and you will be held up as some of the finest examples of human soldiery in history. Good luck, and Godspeed."] At that, the transmission ended and the combined fleet continued onwards.

["YOU HEARD THE OLD MAN, LET'S KICK SOME ZEEK ASS PEOPLE!"] Someone shouted into a fleet-wide channel, and was met not by calls to cut the chatter, but with a chorus of cheers and agreeing war cries.

["All units, begin launching strike craft."] Ajax prepped himself as his catapult shot him forward, followed by Willie's own RX-77-2A. The magnetic impulse catapults on the _Ise_ ostensibly used next to no moving parts, relying solely on sequenced electromagnetic impulses to both launch and recover strike craft without the need for either wires, barriers, lateral linear catapult inductors, or launch platforms, and were naturally a highly classified technology unique to large Federation Warships, the exact workings of which were _highly_ debated on internet forums and imageboards.

Glancing around his immediate camera field of view, Samuel smiled as he saw dozens of Saberfish fighters, Hammerfish strike bombers, torpedo boats, Ball series mobile pods, and other Guncannons. In addition, other UW member nations had provided for New Texas's defense even if they were unable to supply capital ships, Daughtaps and F-34 Dragoons from Satelicon, MA2 Mobius space fighter-bombers from the Eternia Alliance, Hayabusa space fighters from the Orb foreign volunteer group, HRL Space Tierens and Chkalov ChA-41 Space fighters, and even Leos and a massed variety of spacefighters and bombers from the Allied Colonies and the Sanc Kingdom's foreign volunteer force.

The Zeon fleet suddenly resolved into realspace, and began wildly maneuvering and firing off countermeasures in a panic as the EFSF forces opened fire at long range with kinetic torpedo, beam cannon and missile salvos before someone in the enemy chain of command apparently managed to reign in order as salvos of return fire and waves of Pact MS, mobile pods, and fighters roared out from missile tubes, cannons and hangars respectively to attack, even as many of their side's ships broke apart and burned out around them.

["Here they come people, keep on your toes and watch for any oddly colored Zakus."] Lancer One, Commander Lila M. Rila ordered as her Guncannon peeled off to engage a group of Zeon Debake fighters.

"Roger that lead." Ajax threw his MS into a turn, the red tracer beams of his suit's anti-laser blisters stabbing out into the void as he weaved through missiles, tracers from AA guns, CIWS and laser-blisters, and the opposing yellows and magentas of Zeon and EF beam fire, catching a Zaku I off guard and riddling it with holes with his machine gun as it tried to destroy the _Magellan_ -class battleship _Scharnhorst_ , which was withdrawing from the combat engagement after colliding with the frigate _Acasta_. "Got one!" he shouted before tearing fire from his shoulder gatlings through the unprotected hull _Jicco_ -class torpedo boat that was either bravely or suicidally charging for the _Jutland_ -class carrier battleship _Furious_ after performing a relativistic 'leap' into Federation ranks, the crippled vessel leaking oxygen and some flames from exotic reactants and ammo as he flashed past it.

His sensors registered a pair of cannon shell detonations behind him moments later and the synthesized noise of an explosion echoed into his helmet's speakers, odd.

["I got a Graze that was gunning for your ass Four."] Lieutenant Reiko Hollinger, Lancer 6 reported as she blew past him and swatted a pair of Gattles with her shoulder cannons, a Debake fighter following soon after.

"Thanks for that Six. How the hell did that guy sneak up on me?"

["He didn't, I caught the bastard trying to snipe you on a high-speed pass."]

Samuel chuckled as he spiraled around a _Lepanto_ and tore a Dopp to shreds with his head mounted vulcan guns after intercepting its missile salvo. "That makes three I owe you."

["Make up it to me in the bar, or bed if you prefer, I'm not picky really."]

"Heh." He wasn't sure if the second half was a joke or not.

["Cut the chatter you two, we're still in the middle of a battle."] Lila interjected as they proceeded to cover the ditching of the crippled _Pola_ , which had been disabled by the EM wake of a plasma-sheathed kinetic driver shell from a gun _behind_ the Zeon lines, the _Salamis_ -class ship's engines flickering as it began to drift, and a pair of opportunistic Zeon _Gagauls_ began focusing the cruiser down with beam cannon fire now that its barriers were down even as escape capsules and the ship's shuttle launches began to rocket away from the doomed cruiser.

["This is too easy, why are all their MS Zaku Is and IIAs with some GINNs, Leos, Jenices, Gerails, and Grazes mixed in…"] Samantha Carmichael, the pilot of Lancer Eight questioned.

As if on cue Wertz heard the chirp of an alarm tone, indicating a high-speed object diving down from above him. "EVADE, EVADE, DIRECT FIRE UP!" He shouted and began firing at a red-salmon streak bearing down from above, barely making out the general shape of a command model Zaku IIC loaded to the brim with Bazookas, Sturm Fausts, an MG and an anti-ship rifle as it blazed past him into the fleet below, a set of brilliant red streaks emitting from its thrusters.

["THE HELL IS THAT CRAZY ZEEK BASTARD DOING, FUCKER MUST HAVE HIS LIMITERS OFF!"] Reiko yelled as she dodged the ballistic Zaku, which began tearing through the ships scattered below them, effortlessly dodging AA fire in a manner not unlike a fish darting around at random, its first victim, the _Anake_ -class battleship _Manticore_ brewing up from a sturm faust hit as exploding missile cells and venting energy feed lines tore the ship in twain before the suit darted off to its next target whilst taking a parting shot at the _Manticore's_ bridge with a bazooka shot, utterly destroying it and all aboard, all the while ignoring the strike craft and escorts for the moment as a volley of AA missiles fired by the _Lepanto_ -class Frigates _Fubuki_ , _Pringle_ , and _Vampire_ chased after it.

["THAT GUY'S SOME KIND OF RED COMET!"] A Saberfish pilot shrieked into an open channel, his damaged fighter trailing fuel as he screamed up through the fight.

"Idiot! Turn back to the EFF encryption set!" Ajax snarled as he watched an Allied Colony Leo and a White Fang Leo mutually destroy each-other with an exchanged volley of beam rifle fire while a Sanc Kingdom machine impaled a Graze with one of its beam sabers, all the while dozens of Zeon C model Zakus dove down from 'above' and began tearing into the Federation fleet.

Before the fighter could acknowledge its cockpit was smashed by a black and violet Zaku's foot and sent spiraling off into the side of a _Keramaia_ -class destroyer, this particular machine was backed by two identically painted, even if not marked or equipped, Zakus.

"Shit, more Zeek aces." Samuel grumbled as he sprayed fire at the lead unit while they lined up one behind the other and rocketed at him, noting that they seemed to have improved thrust and maneuverability compared to a normal Zaku IIC, probably the high mobility types intel reports mentioned.

"Oh hell no." he kicked his thrusters and sped down on the Z-Axis at the last possible second, watching all three overshoot above and try to reorient on him before a pair of 180mm shells broke up their formation. The one with the **giant fucking bardiche** seemed to take Lancer 8's intervention personally, and charged down the RX-77-2A.

"LANCER EIGHT! GET OUT OF THERE!" Ajax shouted as their Guncannon fired it's 60mm quad barreled arm gun into the enemy mobile suit while backing away. He himself was busy dodging fire from the other two Zakus, using the abandoned hulk of the _Pola_ as a shield to force them to waste their ammo.

["WE'RE TRYING, GYAA-"] The link broke as the Zaku's poleaxe cleaved down through the heavy weapons suit's head and into the cockpit in the torso, killing both pilot and gunner.

With a dismissive flare of the monoeye as it kicked the wreck off its polearm, the machine ignored Ajax's enraged MG fire and dodged a salvo fired by Lancer Three, piloted by Chance Furlough and his gunner, Jake Lawson, as it sped off to rejoin its squad, whom apparently had better things to do than fuck around with a pair of Guncannons.

Lancer Three in turn dodged a pair of bazooka shots before gunning down a CGUE belonging to a ZAFT unit attached to the Zeon attack force and falling back, Wertz himself shattering a Jenice with a volley of missiles from his leg pods before using a hapless Oggo drone pod as a weapon to bludgeon a Zaku II's cockpit in with.

The cycle of death continued seemingly endlessly, dozens of warships tore each other apart with beam weapons and missiles or were ripped into by strike craft and mobile suits that got past their defensive screens of flak, dual-purpose beam turrets, point lasers, and anti-air missiles. With most of the victims being _Lepantos_ , _Salamis_ , _Keramaias_ , _Musais_ , and _Gagauls_. Simultaneously, intense dogfights developed where Zeon's Zakus and Bugus, ZAFT's GINNs and CGUEs, the SRA's Jenices and Gjallarhorn's Gerails and Grazes, and the White Fang's Leos held the advantage via experience and greater close-quarters performance (in most cases) compared to the UW's Guncannons, Tierens and Leos, to say nothing of how Mobile pods and fighters fared against them. Initially the tide had been in the Federation's favor with the superior numbers of their machines and ships, yet now they were being forced to give metaphorical ground to the enemy as more and more ships were turned into space hulks by Zeon's special assault regiment.

Ajax sighed in frustration as he turned and flew back to the _Ise_ for refuelling and a new ammo load as the frigate _Ayanami_ rammed into an _Endra_ -class cruiser in the distance, turning both ships into a short lived fireball while an engine chunk crushed the bridge of a damaged _Musaka_.

* * *

Samuel lost track of when the retreat signal was ordered, it could have been anywhere from ten minutes in to an hour, but when it was issued he'd already returned to the damaged _Ise_ with the remainder of his unit by then for a final bout of refueling and rearming after expending most of his latest load of ammo and vernier fuel.

"So what's the status of the fleet." He asked hesitantly as he touched down, having lost track as he began racking up kills on enemy units.

["Vice Admiral Harrington was killed when that red Zaku blew up the _Manticore_ , Admiral Revil is MIA after the _Ananke_ was sunk by the Zaku team that killed Sam and Mike, which leaves Tiannem, Kowen, Cunningham and Watkein who are regrouping the rest of us for a last stand in the Zahn System."] Lila reported.

"And our unit…?"

["Lancers Two, Seven, and Eight are KIA, Lancers Nine, Six, and One are heavily damaged, while you, Five, and me and Jake are the only pilots whose suits are still in working order."] Chance stated as his Guncannon set down on the _Ise's_ rear flight deck.

"Damn…" Samuel looked around, watching other craft limp back to any ship that could take them as the fleet broke off, heading down on the system's Z-axis at best speed to avoid the colony as it prepared to FTL Jump to the next system, glancing to the side he watched the _Aetos_ -class light carrier _Saipan_ sail close alongside, a pair of Leos flanking the ship's island as it recovered another fighter.

["Holy shit I think we might have actually pulled it off though!"] Willie exclaimed as numerous MS heads tracked over to watch the damaged colony break apart as its drive powered up before it finally launched forward at near relativistic speeds and fragmented totally, no longer able to withstand the sheer force of the transition to near light speed.

Like some vast frag grenade of the gods, the shrapnel promptly tore apart much of the Zeon fleet that was unfortunate enough to be in the spread zone as the fragments began impacting celestial objects and space colonies light-minutes away, the Federation units that didn't have access to real time visual data watching minutes later in horror as they witnessed millions of people die for a _second_ time as orbital platforms, space colonies and lunar cities were ruptured by the streaks of near FTL speed debris, massive craters blossoming on the surface of several moons, New Texas itself being spared only by virtue of its positioning behind another planet in the system. ["Oh… Oh god…"] He whispered.

["And to think… This war is only just getting started…"] Reiko whispered as Ajax dragged her suit into the rear elevator doors of the _Ise_.

"Yeah… It is…" He agreed, watching the blue glow of Loum itself flicker in the far distance as the doors closed and the faint reddish glow of human emergency lighting illuminated them as the lift lowered them to the hangar deck, opening to reveal the chaos of dozens of crewmen, mobile workers, mobile suits, mobile pods, fighters, bombers, and lifeboats strewn across the hangar.

"And it's only gonna get worse…" He muttered as his MS took a step into the bay.

* * *

 _In the week following the Battle of Loum delegates from the two factions gathered in Antarctica on Earth to sign a ceasefire, during the negotiations however, Admiral Revil arrived, having escaped from Zeon captivity with the aid of UW agents and gave his since famous 'The Pact is Exhausted' speech, reinvigorated by his words, the United Worlds delegates renegotiated the Antarctic Treaty to ban the usage of weapons of mass destruction in all forms, recognize neutral zones and entities, and to force both sides' member states to reaffirm their commitments to the Geneva Conventions, backed by ominus threats of revitalizing old WMD's such as the  
_ Bulge _-class_ _battle platforms that dated back to the tensions surrounding the rather small-scaled continuance war between ZAFT and the EA._

 _Almost six months later, the war is still in a stalemate, with neither side able to gain the advantage._

* * *

 _ **June 6 SE 0279. Side 7, Colony 1, Gryps IV L3, Gryps System, Neutral Space.**_

The normally soundless chuffs of his Zaku's thrusters echoed into the headset of Master Sergeant Arnold Denim's helmet as he and the rest of A Platoon semi-drifted towards a maintenance hatch on the side of the colony, obscured from passive sensors by solar radiation coming from behind them and their own jamming devices.

Setting down on the surface, Sergeant James Ash's Zaku turned the release valve intended for use by mobile workers, the airlock doors opening silently despite the rumble felt by the footpad sensors of the mobile suits.

After taking a moment to sweep over the interior of the airlock with their 120mm Linear MGs the Zaku IIs dove in one at a time, the outer hatch closing behind them before the inner one opened and allowed entry into the construction block.

The faint whoop of a Siren blared on the other side of the construction barrier once they had entered a pressurized area.

["Master Sergeant!"] Lance Corporal Thomas Gene, the troublesome newbie of the team, chattered into the platoon comms. Denim still thought the use of junior enlisted men as pilots was a stupid idea, but Zeon needed every MS it could field so who was he to complain.

["Calm down Gene, it's on the other side of the barrier, it's only a docking alert alarm, not a military tone."]

["Do you think it's that Trojan Horse we stalked here sir?"] His second, Kurz Slender asked.

["That is… Likely…"] Denim admitted as they continued onwards.

* * *

In the colony's dock control center, the colonial authorities and watched as an immense Haze Grey colored and Green keeled ship docked. With the name _White Base_ plated on its both of its twin bows.

"Docking complete, closing main gate and re-engaging atmosphere screens." A tech stated as docking clamps came in to lock the new arrival into place.

"Hard to believe that this is the new line of superheavy supply ships." Someone muttered.

"I still can't believe they built and launched this all the way back on Earth, doesn't look like it should have been able to break Orbit." The dockmaster muttered.

"She's a beauty alright." One of his subordinates stated.

* * *

 ** _CVB-02,_ EFS Franklin D Roosevelt _. Side 7 Colony Dock._**

Captain Paulo Cassius sighed as EFS _Franklin D Roosevelt_ , CVB-02 settled into the dock, the ship was named after an a somewhat forgotten Aircraft Carrier of the old US Navy, CVB-42 USS _Franklin D Roosevelt_ , itself the younger sister of USS _Midway_ , and had been the first US Carrier to launch and recover a jet, marking a new epoch in Naval Aviation. Not unlike how _Rosie_ was the first of the new Battle Carriers purpose designed for mobile suit operations to enter fleet service. Unlike the prior classes of Federation carriers, the new _Midways_ boasted significant command and control abilities, not just for their mobile suits, but to serve as flagships for entire battle fleets, which was a role previously limited to _Anake_ -class vessels due to the _Jutland_ 's more limited CIC abilities, as such they boasted numerous luxuries previously only found on command vessels, one of these luxuries was the extensive holotank setups in both the bridge, the briefing rooms, and the CIC.

"Docking complete sir." The helmsman stated as _'Rosie'_ settled into her berth, the massive carrier was currently falsely ID'd for her maiden voyage as the bulk super freighter _White Base_. A ship that didn't actually exist. While Cassius wasn't exactly fond of violating a rule of naval combat, so long as they didn't initiate combat against an otherwise unsuspecting enemy force while wearing the false ID there was nothing blatantly illegal about it.

"Excellent work Juane." Cassius stated. "Marker, Oscar, let me know if our sensors detect any changes in the behavior of those Musais."

"On it sir." Oscar said.

"You got it Captain." Marker gave the Captain a thumbs up before returning to his console.

"Lieutenant Bright."

"Sir!" The young officer saluted and stood at attention from his place overseeing the port control pit.

"At ease son, I'm hardly for extensive formalities outside important occasions. We're here to drop off the supplies and load up the Mobile suits that are being tested on Side 7."

"I've read up on the test pilots that are assigned to units 1 and 2, they were part of Lancer Team during the final days of the Human-Argotha war and fought with distinction at Loum and New California, the pilot of unit 1 even survived a brief encounter with the Black Tri-Stars, a rarity for a Guncannon pilot." Bright stated, having double checked the dossier just to be safe.

"Indeed, and these new units they're bringing with them might be the start of the turning point we need for this damn war. Keep on your toes even if we're sending people 'ashore' for liberty. I don't trust those _Musais_ that followed us here to not try anything, it's a neutral zone after all, but given that they seem to be a special missions force, we'll probably end up in conflict with them anyways."

"I'll alert Captain Law and his subordinates to put the Wing on high alert." Bright responded.

"Make sure you do." Paulo said as he looked out the bridge windows once again. "Of course, we're only a 'supply ship' so they'd have to have no sense of shame to attack us." He chuckled.

* * *

 _ **Side 7.**_

Fraw Bow jogged up to Amuro's door and rang the bell. "Amuroooo! The supply ship is here, come on you said you'd help me get groceries today!"

["That's today…?"] His response droned out from the bell's speaker.

"Yes, that's today, have you lost track of time or something!?"

["Alright, Alright, I'll be down in a second… Just let me get dressed…"]

"It's almost noon and you're still not dressed!?" Fraw screeched as an electric motorbike rolled up.

"What'd you expect. It's Amuro." Hayato stated with mild disdain, glancing towards the door briefly.

"Oh! Hayato!" Fraw waved at him as Haro popped out of the carrying pouch on it and hopped into the Girl's arms. "I see you've found Haro."

 **"Hello Fraw! How are you?"** It chirped happily in its usual feminine tone, the long-lived Bandai-Mattel company had released the Haro line eight years ago, backed by the line's mascot, the AI Haroro, and the toy-like machines had spread throughout human space in a variety of sizes and colors, popular with children for their adorable nature, and with older, more technically inclined, individuals for their modularity, eclipsing rival Hasbro-Takara-Tomy's Tori line of mechanical birds in popularity. It was oft rumored that Lacus Clyne, the Zodiac Songstress, had a veritable fleet of the smaller model Haros provided to her by her fiance.

"I'm doing fine Haro." She responded, smiling at the lime green sphere as its eyes flashed and arm covers flapped happily.

"Amuro really needs to put this thing on a leash, I found it near the construction barrier again, and I took it since I was afraid the Federation security troops would use it for target practice." Hayato muttered, glaring paranoidly at the barrier. Fraw knew he had hang-ups with the Federation soldiers ever since Kai talked him into heading down to the construction barrier one day and they'd come into class with severe bruising the next. Although to be fair, she was sure he also blamed Kai for getting them into whatever happened in the first place.

"Why'd they be near the construction barrier? Sure the colony is taking a long time to complete but that's just because of the resource and manpower shortages due to the war right?"

Hayato shook his head as Amuro walked out the door before glaring again, this time at the other teen, whom was dressed in rather casual garb but still had his blue EFF cadet's jacket on. "Maybe you should ask his dad about it next time he calls from Earth or wherever." And then he drove off without another word.

"What was that about…" She murmured.

Amuro remembered the squad of Earth Federation soldiers that had fired upon Kai and his friends, and then after realizing it was just a bunch of idiot kids, started beating on them before the squad's Staff Sergeant arrived, hopping mad mind you given that he'd been sleeping, and screaming in their faces that they'd be NJP'd out an airlock if they didn't straighten up before promptly yelling at the civilians to get lost or _they'd_ be thrown in jail for trespassing in a secure zone.

Amuro had been on sentry duty nearby with the rest of his training group and heard the entire thing.

Something honestly didn't add up with all the hidden security around the barrier, an infantry platoon was one thing, but there were anti-infantry mines, heavily armed patrol robots, and sentry guns as well, and he knew it had something to do with the fragments of data and schematics his father had left behind in his study, and Amuro was smart enough to know that asking questions about this would send him to the brig until Tem got back.

"I don't exactly know but I have some suspicions… I'll go bring the car around." He walked off to the garage and started up the buggy before driving it out, Fraw getting into the passenger seat and buckling in, Haro chirping away in her lap.

* * *

' _Construction block my ass'_ Denim thought as he swept his Zaku's monoeyes around, ricochet-proof and blast resistant walls, observation towers, drone hangars, hidden bays for remote controlled armored vehicles , minefields, box and VLS type field launchers, modified rotary CIWS cannons, and heavy cannon emplacements, this was a live-fire testing ground if he'd ever seen one.

["More wreckage over here Master Sergeant, older model Leos and Tragos this time. Part of an Aries as well."] Ash reported as the Zakus continued to pick around the test site. ["They're sliced to bits by the same weapon that did a number on that Guntank back there..."]

["Roger, keep searching."]

["Master Sergeant, there's an early-type Guncannon here, this hole pattern looks like a ranged weapon this time."] Gene radioed as Denim's Zaku made its way over and knelt next to it.

["Do we or any of our allies have any in service MS use beam weapons with this level of firepower?"] Denim asked, hiding his nervousness.

["Negative, the closest I've seen is the ion cannon ZAFT uses as part of their D-Type equipment."] Gene answered.

["So some kind of beam rifle then."] Denim mused, previously such technology had been limited to the Leo, which boasted a very primitive beam rifle that was more or less a machine gun capable of moderately improved armor penetration but with much lower rate of fire, which wasn't saying much, Zeon and Gjallarhorn had preferred ballistic weapons over beam weaponry for the most part due to the lower maintenance and power requirements, which were more suitable for immediate production.

Although he'd heard mention of Guncannons starting to be seen carrying beam rifles with battleship grade firepower, which meant the Federation had solved the issue of thermal friction on the barrel.

 _"Disturbing..."_

["MASTER SERGEANT!"] Ash exclaimed, his radio squawking.

["What is it Ash!"]

["ENEMY SIGHTED!"] The faint tings of linear shell impacts on armor were audible in the chatter. ["THEY'RE FIRING VULCANS AND POINT LASERS AT US! WE'RE ENGAGING!"]

["Negative Ash, fall back and re-group! We don't want to tangle with whatever this thing is in close quarters!"]

["TOO LATE SIR, WE'RE ALREADY ENGAGED!"]

["DAMNIT ASH, FALL BACK! SERGEANT ASH, RESPOND!"] Denim yelled into the comms, slamming his fist against his console as he messed with the settings to try and clear up the static on his outgoing frequency.

Ash and his subordinates opened fire on the incoming outline, emptying their weapons into it, only for their target to march right through the barrage, seemingly without a scratch.

["M-MASTER SERGEANT, OUR MACHINE GUNS DIDN'T EVEN PHASE IT, I-I FIRED THE ENTIRE DRUM MAG INTO IT! IT'S STILL COMING THIS WAY!"] Ash sounded increasingly terrified as the seconds passed.

["I DIDN'T CATCH THAT ASH, WHAT'S COMING YOUR WAY!"]

["THE FEDERATION'S NEW MOBILE SUIT!"] Sergeant Ash screamed as the Grey, gold, black, and brown MS marched towards him, golden targeting sensor 'eyes' gleaming in the darkness, however the thing that truly terrified Sergeant Jacob Ash was not the suit itself, but the emblem inscribed on the right shoulder and the shield, a Fox's jaws gnashing down on the buckling head of a Zaku.

["AND IT'S BEING PILOTED BY THE GREY FOX OF NEW CALIFORNIA!"] He screamed as he resumed shooting.

["ASH REPEAT THAT, WHO'S PILOTING THE ENEMY UNIT!?"] Denim shouted before swearing under his breath, knowing that their enemy was jamming them. _'Damn Feddies...'_ He fumed internally as he sat there, helpless to reinforce his men.

* * *

Samuel Ajax chuckled as the linear MG shells bounced harmlessly off his armor plate and shield. He'd already reported the Zakus in to command, and they were trying to sortie unit 2 with Willie behind the controls.

Additionally, he was already jamming their comms, no sense in letting them co-ordinate outside visual range if he could help it.

"Get a load of this." He muttered before his suit's shoulder cannon swung up and over before firing a 240mm shell into one of the Zakus and then boosting back and away from them.

 _'Can't get too hasty, I blow them up and they'll wreck the barrier.'_ He mused bluntly as he tracked the Zakus with the suit's sensors.

The Feddie pilot smirked and fired his thrusters again as the Zakus closed the range, he wasn't stupid, if he got close to those Zakus they'd dogpile him and use their heathawks to cut him to bits, aiming on point he fired his beam rifle at the Zaku he'd previously shot and sent a particle beam racing into the Zeon suit, the sudden friction of super high velocity particles burning a hole straight through its cockpit, vaporizing the pilot.

Turning, he fired a salvo from the shoulder cannon that bracketed the second Zaku and followed up with a final shell into the chest, shattering the cockpit and sending the machine into the dirt.

Wheeling around on his suit's heel, he tracked the last Zaku before firing his second beam rifle shot, only to realize in horror that it would hit lower than intended as the Zaku jumped at the last second, on instinct he fired his own thrusters to pull the Gundam back as the Zaku's reactor detonated from the sudden thermal energy transfer and blew through both the colony wall and the construction barrier.

"Oh fuck..." He breathed as his suit dodged debris that was being sucked into space, before managing to distance himself enough from the initial outrush of air and debris being drawn in by the vacuum left by the explosion that there was no immediate threat to himself being flung into space.

* * *

"What was that!?" Fraw shouted as she and Amuro stood in the parking lot next to the port facilities. All around them people were chattering in confusion and horror as they watched air slowly begin to exit the colony in the distance. Evacuation alarms were blaring nonstop now.

"Fraw, get in…" He mumbled. The girl jumped into the car as he started it up and drove off, Amuro rushing to get them back to the residential area.

"Amuro what's wrong!"

"That explosion, the construction barrier can't withstand something that powerful" He shouted, glancing for only a split second at the barrier. Indeed, the weakened bulkhead was already showing signs of further collapse under the stresses of the colony's rotation.

* * *

["MASTER SERGE-!"] Ash's line broke into static as Denim and Gene watched an explosion flare up in the distance, followed by another and then a third, much larger explosion. Both wanted to do something, but neither wanted to tangle with a possible Feddie ace in an as of yet unknown Mobile Suit armed with a damn battleship-grade beam rifle.

["Sergeant Ash!" DAMN THEM!"] Gene started to move before Denim's Zaku could seize him, firing on what look like a series of observation and command structures. ["I'LL CRUSH THEM ALL!"] He screamed, before smashing his suit's left fist through a building's windows and opening fire on the control staff inside before raking additional machine gun fire over the exterior of what he assumed was a transit corridor or lift.

* * *

Samuel thought he heard Willie scream briefly as a series of flashes tore up the side of one of the test bay structures. It didn't take a psychic to realize what had just happened to his friend.

"No… Damn them…" As much as revenge was on his mind, new orders came in to transfer units 01 and 02 to _Franklin D Roosevelt_ alongside the rest of the Project V Mobile suits already in the port's transfer bays.

"Roger that…" He sighed and leapt his Gundam through the now open heavy access barrier gate doors, following the cargo train carrying the white, blue, red, and gold painted RX-78-2.

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

Captain Cassius narrowed his eyes. "So, the attack has come from inside the colony… Deploy the Marine complement and the Guncannons, recall everyone on liberty immediately." He ordered.

"What about the civilians sir?" Bright asked as he glanced up from a tactical screen showing an IFF tag moving through the colony.

"Anyone who cannot get to a shelter pod is to be allowed aboard, prioritize women, children, and the elderly and infirm." He responded, never taking his eyes off of the colony damage reports the ship's computers were going through

"Yes sir!" Bright saluted and rushed to his station.

"Sir it'll take twenty minutes to reconfigure the Guncannons for colony based operations, we were expecting a space engagement!" Marker stated without glancing up from his console.

"And the Guntanks?" Paulo asked, already anticipating the answer as being bad news.

"Hangar Chief Fang reports they Marines have them disarmed and partially disassembled for extensive maintenance, it'll take at least an hour for them!" Oscar reported.

The Captain swore. "We'll have to leave it to the prototype and the main battle tanks then…" He groused.

"Sir, the amount of tactical level traffic between the _Musais_ has increased, we should expect them to engage in combat operations at any moment!" Oscar shouted after double checking his console feeds from the CIC again.

"Damn… We'll have to fight them too… Marker, Oscar, keep the tac feeds running, cancel the colony setup order for the Guncannons, and prepare a torpedo boat for me…."

"Understood sir." Marker acknowledged as he and Oscar triple checked the command codes to make sure Bright was fully entered into the system as Captain Cassius stood up and walked to the bridge's express elevator. "Lieutenant, come here for a moment."

"Sir!" Bright shouted as he rushed over.

"I want you to take command of _Rosie_ while I head out in one of the torpedo boats to draw off enemy fire."

"I don't think I'm qualified for this though sir…" Bright stated hesitantly.

"Bright, you have the best command scores out of anyone aboard, and served dutifully aboard the escort carrier _Chitose_ , it's no substitute for combat experience but you'll have enough veteran officers with you to make it work, in addition to the 'Gorgon of Hatte' piloting unit 00. In any case I doubt you'll be leaving port without me in command. You have the bridge now Bright." He smiled and walked into the express elevator and the doors slammed shut.

"What are your orders Lieutenant? The primary Helmsman and a chunk of the crew are on the colony, which leaves us understaffed."

Bright turned to face them. "Either load the mobile suits in the transfer bays or prep them for combat as needed, make sure all spare parts and support materials are loaded ad well! Scrounge up everything you can from any nearby residences, spaceport sections and businesses for supplies, and prep the medbays and surgical suites on the double! And I want Commander Mass to get unit 0 sortied ASAP, an independent cruiser squadron will undoubtedly have elite pilots aboard." He ordered.

"Sir, the GM units in the dock hangar are reporting they're preparing for action, should we have them outfit with space equipment?" Petty Officer Shute Butler asked.

"Do it, but maintain enough leeway for maneuvering inside the colony." Bright commanded, cursing the timing internally.

The Petty Officer nodded and chattered away into his headset.

"The rest of you man your stations and ready the light AA guns for action, we can't fire anything heavier than the 30 milimeter gatling units within the dock so use them and the point lasers to intercept missiles and bazooka rockets!"

The remaining bridge crew members saluted and rushed to carry out his commands.

* * *

Down in the _Franklin D Roosevelt's_ ready room, Sayla Mass sipped her coffee as the alert came in, sitting there calmly as the rest of the pilots sprang up to get changed into their normal suits. Sayla only sighed as she finally stood up and calmly walked to go put on her own normal suit. _'So, there's a fight coming…'_ She mused as she zipped up the blue suit, knowing full well that they wouldn't have requested her and Unit 0 so suddenly unless they were expecting to face an enemy ace. _'But why is there this familiar pressure...'_ She thought as something tingled at the back of her mind.

Shoving it aside she continued her preparations.

* * *

 _ **Side 7.**_

Amuro swerved to avoid chunks of rubble caused by a transfer car's sudden derailment.

"Tch… The road's out because someone was in a hurry and got stupid." He snarled. Both he and Fraw jumped out of the car, the latter rushing off to her family while Amuro ran over to the wreckage. Already a tracked carrier had moved over to try and tow it clear.

"C'mon Haro!" He shouted to the spherical robot, which flapped its arm covers as it hopped after him.

One of the Federation Personnel whom was directing civilians to detour looked over at him, something flashing on his normal suit's visor as his suit scanned Amuro's ID. "Cadet Ray? What are you doing out here?! This is a combat zone!"

"Shouldn't you be trying to get the civilians clear!?" He shouted.

"Negative, if we try to move them past the prototype they'll just be seen as acceptable collateral to those Zakus!" The soldier shouted back before gesturing off to the side and yelling at one of his subordinates to hurry up.

"Zakus…" Amuro whispered, wondering why the tech would mention Zakus specifically before being briefly distracted as a sleek, humanoid MS landed nearby, the dark grey, black, brown and gold machine glancing around, before looking at the suit on the transfer railcar. "A new model…? The same one from Dad's schematics…" He murmured.

At that moment Gene's Zaku used its missile pods to blast its way through the side of the construction barrier, Monoeye glowing menacingly, in response the civilians started screaming and those at the head of the crowd began running for the shelters or port in spite of attempts to calm then down.

' _The war… It's... It's come here…'_ Amuro thought as he instinctively backed away.

* * *

[MASTER SERGEANT, I SEE THE BASTARD THAT TOOK OUT SERGEANT ASH'S SQUAD, AND THERE'S ANOTHER FEDERATION MS BEING TRANSPORTED!"] Gene shouted as he kicked his Zaku's thrusters and launched forward firing a volley from everything he had. ["I'LL DO IT! OH YES, THESE FUCKERS ARE ALL MINE!"]

["GENE! AAARG, YOU STUPID BASTARD, YOU'LL BE LUCKY TO GET A DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE _WITHOUT_ IT BEING AT THE MUZZLE END OF A _FIRING SQUAD_ AT THIS RATE!"] Denim roared as his Zaku was caught in the backwash of Gene's thrusters.

* * *

 ** _PZS_ Falmel _CLC-219._** _**June 6 SE 0279.**_

"Sergeant Denim's men charged in?" Char asked as Slender reported in the basics of the incident via comms.

["Affirmative sir! Sergeant Ash's squad encountered at least one hostile, Master Sergeant Denim and Lance Corporal Gene went in to back them up, I counted at least three explosions, one of which looked like a reactor detonation. In light of this situation I obeyed my earlier orders and withdrew to report in to you."] Slender stated.

"Well done." _'So, the Federation at the very least has a new mobile suit design in the prototype phase phase. Combined with Le Creuset's special forces team reportedly investigating an Eternia Alliance project in Orb Space, whatever projects Satelicon and Chryse have in the works and the fact the Allied Colonies and Sanc have deployed two Tallgeese units against the White Fang... Plus rumors of the men who_ created _the Tallgeese being active again… We may need to take drastic action.'_ Char mused. "That will do, now return to the _Falmel_ , you'll be fully debriefed later." The Red Comet ordered as Slender saluted and cut his comms channel.

"Color me surprised, I thought Denim had more control over his men." Lieutenant Brien Dren muttered.

"Dren, alert the squadron, then have us detach and approach the colony in a loose containment formation." Char ordered.

"To arms sir?" His second asked.

"The Federation has violated the treaty by committing military operations in a neutral zone, under its provisions nobody can complain if we engage in conventional engagements in what is now a combat zone." He stated as the _Falmel_ , _Dresden_ , _Darmstadt_ and _Adzam_ undocked and maneuvered to face the colony, Zaku and Dopp squads readying in their hangers. "We will make them pay dearly for this mistake."

* * *

 _ **Side 7.**_

' _So this… Is Zeon's MS-06 Zaku II...'_ Amuro thought as he stood among the ruins of the tractor trailer, dead, unconcious or dying Federation personnel laying around him.

He ducked under a burst of shrapnel, the two Zakus that had torn through the barrier were fighting the grey, brown, black, and gold suit that had entered before them which was using the shield to protect a group of civilians from weapons fire and shrapnel as the Federation Marines began shelling the more aggressive Zaku with missiles and cannon-fire from tanks, a group of micro drones sniping the ATGMs down with point laser fire while the Zaku simply raised handheld a knuckler shield that absorbed the worst of the HEAT shells and shattered the Sabot darts due to the extreme angle.

"Must be special forces if they bothered to fit micro-drones to them..." Amuro mused as a wheeled ATGM carrier burnt out violently as jets of flame spewed from its ammo stowage compartments.

Getting back up he rushed over to the transfer carriage, which had been partially towed onto the tracked carrier before the more aggressive Zaku shot that up. Off to the side he saw a blast send Haro flying, the robot intact as far as he could tell.

"AMUROOO!" He turned to see Fraw running over to him as her mother and grandfather shouted for her to come back, before a burst of machine gun fire from one of the Zakus tore into the hillside, the pilot clearly lost in a fit of blood-lust given the lack of targets there beyond civilians rushing to get to the shelters and a few colonial guardsmen and police directing them.

Amuro's eyes widened in horrific realization before the plasma conduit under the street exploded, temporarily blinding and deafening him. and flinging Fraw through the air like a ragdoll.

"FRAW!" He rushed over to her, ignoring the ringing in his ears, whilst clambering over charred corpses and debris, and helped her up.

The girl looked around in shock seeing corpses, wreckage and body parts lying around her. "Mom… G-Grandpa… Everyone..." Amuro grimaced as she broke down into a sobbing wreck and glared up at the Zaku, as he stared at the Zeon emblem stenciled onto its 'forehead' a deep-seated rage boiled up as something at the back of his mind told Amuro that the pilot didn't even care about all the innocent lives he'd just ended.

"Fraw… Get to the ship that's in port."

"Whaa…" That seemed to get the girl out of her shock briefly, how she didn't have hearing damage was beyond Amuro at this point.

"Just go, run Fraw, hurry, it's not safe anywhere near this place. If you don't start running, they'll get you too." Amuro

"No… NOOOOOO! NO NO NO NO NO!" She began breaking down into hysteria.

Out of options now as part of a tank's sideskirt embedded itself into the ground nearby, whether it was from an existing wreck or a freshly destroyed vehicle was irrelevant, Amuro drew his arm back and promptly slapped her, knocking Fraw out of her stupor. "FRAW, STOP IT, I KNOW YOU'RE A STRONG GIRL!" Amuro shouted before speaking again, softer this time. "Run to the docking bay! I'll meet you there. C'mon just run!"

She nodded drowsily and began to stumble off.

"Yes, good, Fraw. That's it! Go! From there you'll be fine! RUN FRAW, HURRY!" He shouted at her as she made her way back to the road, the automatic damage control systems having shut off the damaged gas lines and smiled as a pair of Side 7's colonial guard troopers in their typical light-armored khaki battle-gear and old late AD-style ballistic helmets and goggled facemasks rushed over and helped her to safety as the more heavily armed and armored marines continued drawing fire from the Zeon MS. "That's good Fraw." He said, smiling as she was rushed off somewhere, only stopping to pick up a greenish sphere he immediately recognized as Haro.

Glancing back over at the flatbed car, Amuro briefly checked to see if the Zakus were looking, which they thankfully weren't and rushed over to it, clambering up onto the flatbed. "So, you're what they're after… So many people just died because of you… I want you to make up for that… Let's see there should be an access panel on the foot… Yes! Here it is!" He flipped a hatch on the 'toe' of the machine open and entered the OS code he'd seen in his father's notes, noting the brief flicker of a word as it was accepted. "King of Knights… Why is that the access code… I swear dad likes his AD era Japanese crap too much." A faint hiss around the torso section announced the opening of the primary cockpit hatch. Amuro glanced up at the Zaku, morbidly relived to see it was still pre-occupied with the other MS and the marines after having wiped out the existing defense units that had been securing the perimeter around the transport car, the active federation machine still peeking in and out from behind buildings as the Zakus exchanged fire with it and the tanks, jeeps, and MLRS units.

Slipping down into the cockpit he realized how similar it was in basic layout to the Guncannon simulators he'd been in during his Cadet course. "Huh, who knew my dad's attempts to keep me from getting drafted into the main forces would help save my life…" He muttered before flicking on the main power button. "Woah… Even the output on this is at least twice that in the old notes… Plus the five-fold power increase just from standby." He noticed the same designation number and codeword that was marked on the carrier flatbed car appearing as the machine booted up and its reactor began to reach running temperature.

 **RX-78-2 Gundam Field Use Developmental Type, Unit 2, System Startup, Activating integrated AI support system.**

An actual honest to god unschackled AI? Weren't those _highly_ regulated even for military purposes?

 _ **"Advanced Recording and Targeting Operations Reflex Intelligent Assistance system. Version, RX-78-2/02 'Gundam'. Online.**_ _"_ A stern female voice stated from the suit's speakers. _**"Warning, no normal suit or federation military ID chip detected on pilot, requesting backup ID, failure to authorize will result in OS deletion and/or suit self-destruction to avoid capture."**_

Amuro felt around for his card, realizing it had flown out of his pocket when the plasma line exploded.

"Shit… Uh Ensign Amuro Ray, I'm in the Side 7 Reserves. Service number 11-5194179-7." He rattled out, and the AI processed it for mere nanoseconds.

 _ **"ID confirmed with Side 7 EFF registry, you are not the assigned pilot of this machine, nor are you a certified pilot with the requisite clearance level. How did you acquire control of this mobile suit?"**_

Amuro's face burned, questioning the intelligence part of Artificial Intelligence. "Side 7 is under attack by Zakus. Everyone who was trying to transfer this suit is either unconscious or dead due to enemy fire, along with a lot of civilians, so I decided that taking control of this machine was preferable to doing nothing."

 _ **"That is… Acceptable for now... Sensor readouts detect one friendly RX-78 unit, multiple EFMC and EFCDF IFFs and telemetry for two MS-06F Zaku IIs. No HMD telemetry feed detected, activating backup vision screens and switching to AI assist control."**_ Amuro could have sworn the AI sounded… Embarrassed that something so obvious could have eluded it.

The cockpit displays flicked on to a terrifying sight, the Zaku that had just killed Fraw's mother and grandfather was now pointing its machine gun at _him_.

"FUCK! MOVE DAMNIT! MOVE!" He jinked the control sticks and pedals in the exact same manner as he was instructed in the emergency standup scenario back from the Guncannon sims.

* * *

["Where do you think that guy bugged off to with the tanks?"] Gene asked, his smugness palpable.

Denim on the other hand was sickened by Gene's wanton slaughter, he'd killed _significantly_ more civilians than actual Feddies in less than ten minutes. ["Probably off to defend the port, Slender's likely reported in to Commander Char by now, and he'll probably want your ass on a platinum platter for this."]

["What for!? The Feddies had it coming!"]

Denim's Zaku prodded Gene's in the chest roughly. ["What about all those civilians you murdered taking out literally three tanks and a random missile truck!"]

["They're just Unnies! They can go straight to hell with the Federation and all the other inner nations! I say we… Huh?"] His machine machine shoved Denim's aside and marched around the other Zaku before aiming its machine gun at the Gundam.

["Leave it alone Gene, it's just an empty mobile suit, we'll drag it back to the commander, and then you can explain to him why you decided **to shoot up a space colony for no good reason**."]

["But! I swore I saw it move sir!"]

The Gundam's chest vents hissed and vented vaporized coolant from the cold startup as it began to push itself up and off the trailer. Gene immediately fired his Zaku's Machine Gun at it, scoring numerous hits but doing no visible damage aside from scoring the paint.

["I KNEW IT MASTER SERGEANT, THERE'S SOMEONE INSIDE!"]

["Well I'll be damned…"]

* * *

"Weapons! Where are the weapons!" Amuro shouted as rounds impacted the Gundam, the latest version of luna titanium composite refusing to yield under the stress.

 _ **"The 60-millimeter head Vulcans are loaded with live ammo, as are the 30mm GAU-23/B rotary cannons integrated into the right shoulder and left forearm and the 12.7mm M5 rotary machine guns in the left shoulder mount. Laser-blister capacitors are currently charging. Countermeasures dispensers and multi-purpose grenade launchers are unloaded for transfer purposes. Missile pods and handheld or optional fixed weapons are not mounted"**_ The AI responded in its usual monotone.

"Right, only the ballistic point defense weapons, anything less than 60mm is ineffective against Zaku armor... Firing switch should be just like on the Guncannon Sim…" He pressed the firing stub for the Vulcans, sending two streams of rounds at Gene's Zaku. A plan working itself out in his head, one just stupid enough to work.

* * *

["We've got a live one here sir, but it's only got Vulcans! Why would these idiots try transferring a suit with just the integrated ballistics loaded?!"]

["Careful Gene!"] Denim warned as his Zaku kept a lookout for the other MS.

["I don't need to be careful! This guy has to be a total nug-"] Gene was cut off by the now upright Gundam's right arm seizing his Zaku by the 'snout' and dragging it down into a prepped knee to the cockpit hatch, the whiplash smacking Gene, who'd turned off his inertial dampers, around in the cockpit even with his restraints, the other manipulator grabbed his MG and _crushed_ the barrel in its grip. Sending chills down Denim's spine.

["Idiot!"] Denim snarled as their new opponent tossed Gene backwards, his suit now missing the vent and coolant pipes on the Zaku's 'face' and with a totally worthless weapon to boot.

["MASTER SERGEANT HELP, HEEEEELP MEEEEEEE!"] He shrieked as his Zaku got up and tried to scramble away, leaking coolant from its head like the suit was frothing saliva in sheer terror as it tried to escape. Denim leveling his machine gun at the Gundam and opening fire to cover his idiot teammate.

* * *

"Damnit, are there any more weapons!?" Amuro growled as he stared at the fleeing Zaku, wincing as impacts dinged off the Gundam's armor again.

 _ **"There are two THI BSjG01 beam sabers located in charging racks on the backpack unit."**_

"Thanks… Artoria?" Amuro said hesitantly as he quickly flicked the handheld armaments selector to unlock the left saber from its rack, mumbling about how the stupid AI didn't notify him of these earlier.

 _ **"That is my designation yes."**_

He rolled his eyes and had the Gundam draw its saber, the glowing magenta-white plasma blade flaring to life inside its containment field as he leapt forwards. _'Gotta aim this right so it doesn't damage the reactor…'_

* * *

Denim watched in shock and horror as the White Mobile suit _leapt_ through the air without firing _its_ thrusters and cleaved Gene in half as he tried to boost away with _his_ thrusters, the two halves of his Zaku tumbling down to the valley floor below, only some propellant and explosive ammo detonating.

' _Damnit, this guy isn't a simple test pilot, he's actually half-competent in battle!'_ He charged forward and drew his heat hawk after dropping his machine gun to the ground and detaching the ammo box from the suit's backpack, if ranged weapons didn't work, then he'd have to carve his enemy apart.

The Gundam whirled around and slammed its saber into the glowing superheated blade of the heat hawk, the axe slowly giving way to the beam blade as the physical materials of the heat hawk melted under the combined thermal energy of its own coils and the plasma of the beam saber.

"RAAAGH, THIS IS FOR GENE, EVEN IF HE DID DESERVE THAT!" Denim roared as he slammed his machine's left fist into the Gundam's abdomen, firing the Vulcan guns mounted on the arm's weapons pack at what looked like the hatch at what popular culture had long deemed point blank range, seemingly stunning the Federation suit. "Did that actually penetrate…?"

The Gundam's eyes flashed as it promptly drew the _other_ beam saber with its free hand and stabbed its blade through the side of Denim's cockpit.

Denim's life flashed before his eyes as the left-hand side of his cockpit glowed. _'Commander Char, this thing is a monster, a White Devil...'_ And then his last thought ended as he evaporated in a flash of light and heat.

* * *

 **PZS Falmel.**

Aboard the _Falmel_ Char frowned as he waited for a status update before he felt a sense of sheer terror.

 _"What in the galaxy could Denim be doing...? No..."_ The Red Comet pursed his lips pensively, his senses telling him something his technicians would likely report rather soon.

* * *

 _ **Side 7.**_

Amuro panted as the Zaku's monoeye flickered and died, deactivating both sabers and backing away to let it slump down to the ground, if the Zaku had loaded better armor piercing ammo or even just fired its machine gun, it might have penetrated at that range.

"Well, I guess that's that… He turned the machine's head to see the other Gundam from Earlier now marked as RX-78-2/01, backed by six simpler yet still Gundam-like mobile suits, marked as RGM-79A GM Initial Production Types on his suit's display screens, and all of them were aiming their weapons at him with their shields at ready.

["ATTENTION WHOEVER YOU ARE, POP YOUR HATCH AND STEP OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!"] The other Gundam announced over both radio and loudspeakers.

 _ **"Warning, combat protocols do not cover friendly fire defenses."**_ Artoria chimed unhelpfully

"Fuck…" Amuro whispered as sweat dripped down his forehead and pressed the cockpit hatch release button. Stepping out onto the cockpit's boarding platform with his hands visible, not like he could do much anyways.

" **Oh for fuck's sake, a goddamn cadet!?"** Someone grumbled over their suit's speakers as a squad of marines walked up to the RX-78-2/02 and directed Amuro to use its field boarding line to head down to them.

* * *

 _ **PZS**_ **Falmel.**

"We've lost contact with Denim?!" Dren exclaimed as tactical reported the loss of his transponder signal. "What about Slender?"

"He's escaped and is heading back to us sir!" The comms officer reported.

Dren exchanged a glance with Char.

"To think I lost nearly an entire _platoon_ of Zaku IIs on one recon mission, I'll be in hot water with Grand Admiral Dozle for sure..." He gave a gesture to the fire control officer who nodded and inputted targeting coordinates, the Red Comet frowned as he continued. "It's not easy to admit... To the folly of one's youth... Dren, order Nanai's Z25s to continue waiting and then join us when the opportunity presents itself or I call for them."

"Yes sir."

Outside the _Falmel_ , two anti-fortress torpedoes launched out of the ship's main firing tubes and raced towards the colony, the rest of the 15th independent cruiser squadron's main force following up with additional salvos.

* * *

AN: And to think I got the initial writeup done in a single night. Anyways, the Argothans will be important later on, but I need time to think them out, and I fully intend to make them and their way of thinking as different from humanity as I can manage.

Also here's some info about of all Warship classes that have been directly mentioned barring the _Midway_ -class, and the _Sluys_ , the latter of which isn't really worth describing at this time.

 _ **Magellan**_ **-class Battleship:** The Primary Battleship of the Earth Federation Space Force, the 610-meter-long _Magellan_ class boasts Ten 406mm twin megaparticle Beam Cannon Turrets, fourteen 127mm twin beam turrets, several VLS cells and Torpedo Tubes, and a sizeable AA and point defense suite. Aside from a shuttle bay capable of receiving most forms of space launch and maybe a single team of MS, the _Magellans_ lack any form of carrying capacity, which often proved to be a fatal drawback in light of combat experience against Argothan Warframes and Pact Mobile Suits being able to slip past the minimum effective coverage range of their barrier screen projectors and attack the ship directly. Many in the Federation Space Forces thus argue for replacing the entire class with the more versatile _Trafalgars_ in lieu of a newer design or modification in order to maintain numerical superiority over other nations.

 _ **Ananke**_ **-class Command Battleship:** Nearly identical externally to their _Magellan_ -class half-siblings, the _Anankes_ boast much improved C3I capability, sensors, reinforced point defense armament, countermeasures and barrier shielding, as well as an additional pair of main battery turrets, one each on the Dorsal and Ventral sides of the ship's center section, replacing the VLS cells normally positioned there on the _Magellans_. These ships typically serve as the Flagships of Battle Lines, and are an increasingly rare sight as space combat switches to a greater focus on Mobile Weapons and more versatile warships capable of troop transport.

 _ **Salamis**_ **-class Light Cruiser:** The primary cruiser and the backbone of the Federation Space Force, the 400-meter-long _Salamis_ -class is a symbol of the Federation's reach and influence being seen in virtually every role the Federation could ask of it, from long range resupply duties in support of frontier outposts to frontline combat, armed with twelve twin mounted 152mm Megaparticle Beam turrets and eight 127mm twin Beam turrets, a sizeable AA suite that varies in layout and design from flight to flight of production ships, and a notable VLS and Torpedo Complement, the only major drawback of the class is a complete lack of carrying capacity for anything more complicated than a typical shuttle launch, a single flight of Saberfish fighters or a pair of Ball Mobile Pod teams without complicated add-on equipment, an upgraded sub-class flight boasting hangar pods for mobile suits is said to be entering production to rectify this problem, in addition to plans for a totally redesigned flight and a new ship class, both to be more suited for mobile suit combat.

 ** _Aetos_ -class Light Carrier: **The primary CVL of the EFSF, the 400 meter long _Aetos_ -class is designed to carry conventional fighter and bomber craft into battle, a variant of the _Salamis_ , the _Aetos_ was designed prior to modern mobile suit development and was intended to be usable in atmopsheric conditions by virtue of a Schenberg craft system, full length flight deck and its complement of over ninety air and space craft. Boasting a substantial AA complement, eight 127mm twin beam cannon turrets, numerous launchers for interceptor missiles, and two 152mm single barreled beam cannons at the rear of the ship, the _Aetos_ -class lacks direct firepower. Once considered the most versatile class in the EFSF, the _Aetos_ has been reduced in standing by the introduction of the _Midway_ and _Kasagi_ -class ships and its own inability to effectively utilize mobile suits.

 _ **Lepanto**_ **-class Frigate:** The standard frigate class of the EFSF, the 278-meter-long _Lepanto_ is notable for its low production costs, low crew requirements, heavy missile armament, and almost unmatched defensive capabilities, this combined with an impressive sensor and targeting suite means the _Lepanto_ is the EFF's go to escort ship, and is often among the ships in heaviest demand for any given mission. Armed with 3 single mounted 127mm megaparticle beam turrets, and a sizable missile/torpedo armament and the most impressive AA/PD suite for any ship in its size class, the _Lepanto_ is set to be a mainstay of the Space Force for decades to come, even in the age of Mobile Warfare.

 ** _Keramaia_ -class Destroyer:** The standard destroyer class of the EFSF, the _Keramaia_ is infact a modified version of the _Salamis_ line, optimized for the destroyer role. at 340 meters long, the _Keramaia_ boasts an substantial AA/PD and sensor array, and is armed with sixteen twin 127mm megaparticle beam turrets and a sizeable missile and torpedo armament, combined with its AEGIS systems the _Keramaia_ 's only real faults are those common to pre-war federation light and medium vessels, their inability to carry a strike unit complement, as such they are limited to patrolling spacelanes and escort duties in fleets and convoys, but remain a valuable class of warship nonetheless due to their other capabilities.

 _ **Trafalgar**_ **-class Carrier Battleship:** One of the two Primary pre-war fleet carrier classes of the EFSF the _Trafalgars_ boast numerous improvements over the older _Sluys_ -class, armed with four 406mm twin megaparticle beam cannons, two 203mm twin beam cannons, a dozen 127mm twin beam cannon turrets, and numerous VLS cells, AA guns, CIWS mounts, and dozens of laser blisters. The ship boasted a maximum carrying capacity of 60 mobile suits or over a hundred fighters and other strike craft, with the actual load depending on hangar configuration. At 690-meters-long, the class is only moderately longer than their _Magellan_ and _Ananke_ -class cousins but is substantially bulkier due to its modified role, ships of this class typically function as command vessels in lieu of dedicated types owing to their extensive C3I facilities.

 _ **Antietam**_ **-class Escort Carrier:** The primary escort carrier of the EFSF, the 460-meter long _Antietam_ is a modification of the ubiquitous 440-meter _Columbus_ -class fast support ship, boasting modular hangar sections in place of the _Columbus's_ modular bays. And is capable of carrying either 24 Mobile Suits in single deck hangars, or a wider variety of non-mecha craft in twin deck hangars. Armed only with a pair of single 127mm beam cannons in addition to point defenses, AA guns and Anti-Strike/MS missiles, the _Antietam_ -class is entirely reliant on escorts and strike craft for defense against anything more than a handful of torpedo boats or fighters.

 _ **Chitose**_ **-class Heavy Escort Carrier:** The other primary escort carrier of the EFSF, based on the larger _Beehive_ -class heavy fast support ship, the 475-meter long _Chitose_ is essentially a double decker _Antietam_ , and literally carries twice the complement at 48 mobile suits or nearly a hundred-strike craft. The major downside of the class is that only point and AA defense has been improved regarding the ship's inbuilt defenses, leaving it even more vulnerable due to its larger size, slow speed, and lack of decent armor and shielding.

 _ **Jutland**_ **-class Fleet Carrier Battleship:** The other primary pre-war fleet carrier class of the EFSF, armed with over twenty 127mm twin beam cannon turrets, and ten 406mm twin megaparticle beam cannons, plus missile, AA, and point defense CIWS and lasers, the 860-meter-long _Jutland_ is often viewed as the actual carrier battleship of the Federation Space Forces with a carrying capacity of 80 mobile suits or over two hundred fighters and other strike craft, with the actual load, like any other Federation Carrier, depending on configuration. Extensive C3I and combat abilities typically mean ships of this class serve as flagships for carrier divisions, with at least eight divisions anchoring every one of the thirty major Federation fleet groups. The class is in the process of being supplanted by the dedicated _Midway_ -class Battle Carriers and _Kasagi_ -class Attack Carriers, which are designed from the ground up to be carriers first and battleships second, unlike the _Magellan_ based _Jutlands_ and _Trafalgars_.

 _ **Gagaul**_ **-class Destroyer:** Zeon's mainline 'Destroyer', the 220-meter-long Gagaul is considered by many Space Attack Force Officers to be a total disappointment for a frontline combat vessel as it was originally designed as a colonial patrol frigate, armed with only a single twin 130mm short barreled megaparticle beam turret in addition to a pair of single casemated 100mm beam guns and a rather mediocre torpedo, AA/PD and missile armament in comparison to their contemporaries, the _Gagaul's_ primary saving grace is its ability to carry a single Mobile Suit team and its relatively powerful sensor array in addition to the low cost of the ship, as such they are typically used as either patrol ships in the Zeon Home Guard and near rear-line bases or as convoy escorts, and are only rarely attached to the main fleet as screening vessels during high stakes engagements, and even then mostly to provide their mobile suit complements and absorb fire meant for more important vessels. As a result of high numbers of ships extant and low demand for replacements, the Zeonic shipbuilding corporation has long since switched most of their destroyer production to the lightweight Z25 _Musai_ -class destroyer to supplant the existing vessels, and the heavier _Musaka_ -class which is to replace the _Gagaul_ entirely, with remaining yards belonging to minor companies producing it in limited numbers only for patrol and escort duties.

 **Z50** _ **Musai**_ **-class Light Cruiser:** Zeon's primary light cruiser, based on the _Arcona_ -class freighter/liner, the 460-meter-long middle-weight Z-50 _Musai_ is the mainstay of the principality's fleets, and a symbol of their military might alongside the equally ubiquitous MS-06 Zaku II, DFA-03 Dopp Fighter, and the Magella series of armored combat vehicles. With three twin 155mm megaparticle beam cannon turrets, like most beam guns these are capable of firing conventional linear accelerated shells for heavy orbital bombardment or long range flak duties, eight single mounted 127mm beam cannon turrets, torpedo tubes, a decent AA and point defense suite for its size class, and a complement of up to a Dozen Zakus plus six Dopp Fighters and a Komusai attack landing shuttle, the Z50 is set to remain the backbone of the Principality's Space Force for the foreseeable future, even if the newer _Endra_ -class ships outperform it in most of the same roles.

 **Z50B** _ **Musai**_ **-class Light Command Cruiser:** A relatively rare sight in the Zeon Space Forces, the Z50B (Befehl) _Musai_ serves as a command ship for independent cruiser forces, and as such, is typically found leading special detachments operating far from friendly battle fleets or theater command centers. Aside from improved C3I capabilities, engines, sensors, countermeasures, barrier shielding, more robust AA and Point Defense Suites, a modified bridge design and more luxurious Officer's quarters, the Z50B is otherwise identical to the standard Z50. A variant with more robust equipment suited for fleet command duties is known the exist, being given the designation Z50B-2.

 _ **Endra**_ **-class Assault Cruiser:** A new sight in the Zeon Space Forces, the _Endra_ -class is armed with five 180mm single barreled Megaparticle guns, and a single twin 155mm megaparticle gun covering the lower rear arc, the _Endra_ -class seems underarmed for such a toted new ship class, even with its substantial AA/PD suite and a decent number of missile tubes. Hidden in the rear section of the hull are a pair of single mounted high bore hyper megaparticle beam cannons, giving the Light Cruiser tonnage vessel the punch of a battleship. Combined with the ability to carry 30 mobile suits and two fighter squadrons, plus a flight system for in atmosphere use, the 570-meter _Endra_ -class is thus expected to replace or at least supplant the venerable Z75 _Musai_ in the assault cruiser role.

 _ **Musaka**_ **-class Destroyer:** Another new sight in the Zeon Space Forces, the 360-meter-long _Musaka_ -class Light Cruiser is officially labeled a destroyer to justify funding for the new class in light of the shortcomings with both the Z25 _Musai_ and the _Gagaul_ , particularly when it comes to the endurance of both vessels when far from friendly ports. Boasting a single platoon of 6 mobile suits and a full fighter squadron, while simultaneously being armed with four twin 140mm beam cannon turrets, multiple forward torpedo tubes and an impressive AA/PD complement for its size class, the _Musaka_ -class is expected to make up the vast bulk of Zeon's destroyer force in the coming years.

* * *

For the _Trafalgar_ and _Jutland_ -classes, they're based on Zensava's Plan 4011 and 4013 versions of the _Irish_ -class respectively, which were intended by him to show the link between it and the _Magellan_. While the _Chitose_ -class is based on the _Beehive_ from thunderbolt. Most Federation ships are somewhat similar to their UC appearances but more advanced internally (particularly when it comes to consoles and other bridge-related things) and with an angular, Arleigh Burke-style aesthetic for their superstructures and parts of the hull like the _Lepanto_ which is mostly unchanged here.

The _Aetos_ -class is based on Jyai's custom Salamis CVL model.

The Z50 Musai is the standard Musai, with the Z25 being the simplified Final Production type from 0080, the Z75 being the Musai Kai from 0083. And the Z50B is just the _Falmel_ with the Z50B-2 being Origin's _Valkyrie_.

The Pegasus analogs, the _Midway_ -class, are a reference to the usage of that class name in Alpha (or at least until Wing Zero Alpha decided to retcon them as a different class name), but are different than in that fic, not only for their planned larger numbers but also the not ridiculously absurd number of suits they can effectively control. Being sort of a hybrid in appearance between the Nahel Argama Kai from the Meaningless War 0091 Doujin, and the Flight III Pegasus, with notable elements taken from the Spartan such as the retractable single mounted beam guns and the landing craft.

The RX-77-2A and RX-77-2B are just the Mobility and Firepower test type Guncannons from Origin except somewhat combat worthy and more in the RX-77-2 style, although all the MS are more hard science-y real robot (but it's still gundam so eh) like in Thunderbolt, 0083, 0080 or Origin, although I tend to use varying aesthetics for suits, so while you should expect me to point that out where it matters, use those as a baseline for general appearances I guess.

Also it's still Gundam so expect newtype space bullshittery later on.


	2. Escape to Heliopolis

_The deployment of mobile suits was anticipated by some to completely surpass the use of conventional vehicles, this ill-concieved theory was quickly dashed, for while mobile suits were incredibly versatile on and off the battlefield they hardly made a dent in the stockpiles and production lines of conventional ground, air, sea, and exoatmospheric light craft and vehicles. and most units were totally incapable of atmospheric flight as well._

 _Nonetheless the development of readily deployable, compact, and powerful beam and artillery weapons as part of the Vinson Plan and the G-Project among other development programs was a hurdle that most other non-warship or fortress combat systems, sans some space fighters, aerospace fighters, and self-propelled artillery pieces could not overcome without potentially decades or even a century or more of further development due to constraints regarding systems placement in a reasonably sized chassis._

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.** _ **June 6 SE 0279.**_

Captain Paulo Cassius grimaced as the main dock, and the _Roosevelt_ , shook from the impacts of the torpedos fired by the _Musais_. "So, they've begun firing… I thought we'd have had more time at least…" He shrugged off the next rumble and headed to one of the torpedo boats docked inside _Rosie's_ stern launch bay and began powering on the assault craft as two flight officers joined him behind the controls.

["This is Hangar control, you are clear to deploy Captain."]

"Roger, we're easing her out now." He responded as the torpedo boat eased out of the rear docking bay.

* * *

 **PZSFalmel _. June 6 SE 0279._**

Char watched as two platoons of Zakus backed by Dopps raced towards the Colony dock.

"It looks like they're scrambling a torpedo boat…" Dren mumbled as the visual data from the Zakus appeared on one of the bridge viewscreens.

"A diversion?" Char asked, not taking his eyes off the forward viewport.

"Perhaps sir."

"Tell Lino and his men to swat it if they want and proceed at their discretion." The Red Comet ordered with all the concern of requesting a side of fries.

"Yes sir."

* * *

 _ **Side 7 Local 'Airspace.' June 6 SE 0279.**_

The torpedo boat drifted out of the rear launch bay and powered on its engines, heading out and directly into the swarm of Zakus, firing away with machine cannons and AA missiles as the MS flitted about like minnows, dodging the fire with relative ease.

"The first vessel I ever commanded was a torpedo gunboat…" Cassius mused as the boat rolled and evaded a volley of MG fire, the Zakus ignoring him now as a group of Dopp spacefighters rapidly closed, the torpedo boat kicking up its ECM emissions as point lasers and autocannon rounds stabbed out at incoming missiles while the countermeasures dispensers fired off bursts of chaff and flares.

"Target the command _Musai_ , fire everything at their primary bridge." He ordered, which was followed by the full payload of thirty torpedoes racing out, warheads screaming towards the _Falmel_. CIWS fire, interceptor missiles, flak shells from the main guns and point lasers volleyed out to intercept while the Musai's own countermeasures fired off in a brilliant display, the few torpedos that got past and remained on target detonating harmlessly about fifty meters away from the hull on the cruiser's barrier fields.

In response the Dopps chased down the torpedo boat. the lead ship managed to score a direct hit on the left engine with cannon fire, while the second craft hit something vital, causing a minor secondary explosion that tore into the control cabin. The crippled boat turned back towards the colony dock as Ryu Jose's recently launched Guncannon fired a pair of directed shrapnel shells into the fighter formation, tearing a substantial portion of it to pieces.

["Captain! Get back to the ship, I'll cover you!"]

Cassius coughed violently, blood blossoming onto his normal suit visor as the suit's biomedical telemetry systems chirped endlessly at him to seek immediate medical attention. "Back then…" He wheezed. "The Boats didn't maneuver nearly this well…"

"HOLD ON CAPTAIN!" Pilot officer Jacob Carnegie shouted as he began broadcasting requests to deploy a crash barrier, the blinking landing lights of the rear flight deck coming into sight as he brought the boat in for a hard landing, the crippled craft skidding to a halt as the barrier caught the damaged craft, whilst damcon teams began putting out the restoked flames and helped bring Captain Cassius to the medbay as the rear hangar doors closed.

* * *

 _ **Side 7 Interior. June 6 SE 0279.**_

Ajax sighed as he and the GM pilots waited for the bay elevators to come back down after evacuating numerous civilians and the Marine armored complement to the dock.

 _ **"Hostiles detected!"**_ His suit's AI chimed in alarm as six Zakus broke through the colony wall and began firing at the GMs and the Gundams, Amuro scrambled back aboard Unit 02 as Ajax raised Unit 01's shield and boosted away, skating along dirt and pavement on ground effect thrusters, the GMs following suit as they fired into the air, forcing the Zakus to back off and seek shelter behind office buildings.

Amuro flicked through several switches as he tried to get Unit 02 moving, backing away as it was simply unable to effectively combat the enemy mobile suits.

["KID! GET UNIT 02 TO THE ROOSEVELT NOW!"] One of the GM pilots shouted at him while deflecting a heat hawk hit with his shield.

Amuro nodded and fired the suit's thrusters, heading to the top of the elevator shaft, unaware that three more Zakus had entered the dock at that moment.

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

"WE NEED A SURGEON STAT!" One of the orderlies shouted as several corpsmen and other personnel skittered about in and around the primary Medbay of the _Roosevelt_.

Fraw looked around in horror at the wounded service personnel and civilians as she walked in to the scene of utter chaos, Haro rolling away from her and chirping her name constantly before it became lost in the din.

"DO ANY OF THE CIVILIANS HAVE MEDICAL TRAINING!? PREFERABLY SURGICAL!" A corpsman yelled.

Looking at the wounded and remembering her own time at her family's clinic Fraw clenched her fists and shouted as she raised her hand. "I DO!"

A man she'd later learn was the ship's dental surgeon waved her over. "THEN STERILIZE, GET SOME SCRUBS ON, AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS!" He shouted over the chatter, getting a handful of other medically trained civilian volunteers to work triage.

Fraw nodded as she grabbed a set of scrubs and headed off to sterilize herself.

At that moment the ship rocked, sending people sprawling in the artificial gravity, by sheer luck nobody had been injured by medical tools.

["THREE ZAKUS HAVE BREACHED THE BAY, ALL HANDS BRACE FOR FURTHER IMPACTS!"] The intercom shouted as several civilians began crying and praying.

* * *

"SIR! DIRECT HIT ON PORTSIDE OUTER HANGAR DOORS!" Marker reported as gunfire burst from _Rosie's_ light AA guns, driving off the Zakus and preventing them from making accurate attacks. "Moderate cosmetic damage but she can't take repeated hits like that!"

"DAMNIT" Bright shouted as the ship shook again. "WHERE IS COMMANDER MASS AND THE REST OF OUR UNITS!" He bellowed in an attempt to keep the fear out of his voice.

"They can't launch while the Zakus are firing on the hangar doors sir!" Oscar responded as a Zaku broke through the admittedly pitiful flak and aimed its bazooka at the bridge, monoeye flashing menacingly as the pilot relished in the moment.

Bright nearly shit himself as a beam saber suddenly stabbed through the cockpit of the Zaku and a white plated arm shoved it away, globs of molten metal spewing from the white-hot gash left in the side of the Zeon machine as it traveled along the blade and flew off to the far side of the space dock, revealing Gundam Unit 02 floating there with its beam rifle and shield equipped.

"Gundam... U… Unit 02?" Bright gasped as he and the bridge crew stared in disbelief.

["Sorry! I had to pick up the beam rifle and shield from the transfer bay along with the countermeasures packages!"] Amuro stated on the comm channel, now in a hastily worn normal suit to accommodate the machine's systems better, although as it wasn't linked to his biometrics fully the normal suit's retinal scan display was nonfunctional.

Bright frowned as he racked his mind before remembering Ajax radioed in that Tem Ray's son had been found piloting Unit 02.

"Cadet Ray." Bright stated, regaining his composure.

["Uh, yes sir!"] Amuro responded as he parried away a Zaku that had attempted to go in for a melee strike.

"I need you to help Commanders Jose and John clear the bay for our mobile suits to deploy."

["Roger!"] Amuro acknowledged as he flew off, slashing the Zaku in half in the process, the wreckage bouncing off the _Roosevelt_ and off towards the other side of the dock, before going off to pursue the third machine, which was attempting to evade fire from the two guncannons.

Amuro snarled as the Zaku dove down and kept dodging his swings, the enemy MS taunting him with a hand gesture and brought up its Bazooka to fire at Unit 02, right as a burst of magenta beams holed its torso, the machine slamming into an empty shuttle bay and exploding.

Simultaneously a third Gundam flew out from _Rosie's_ lower starboard catapult and lowered its rifle, the machine marked as the RX-78-2/00 on both his HMD and the suit itself.

The Blue Gundam barely acknowledged him before launching out of the docking bay to engage the next wave of Zakus and Dopps as the GMs and Unit 01 arrived from the colony interior. The Zeon MS stopping before falling back in the face of increasing enemy numbers.

* * *

 **PZS Falmel.**

Char frowned as what was left of Lino's team fell back, he'd now lost nearly two platoons of Zakus total, plus a Dopp squadron, almost the entire complements of _two_ Z50 _Musais_. Of which he had _four_.

On the other hand he had three Federation combat capable prototype units and several early production MS, presumably based on said prototypes, two piloted by known aces or at least with their markings, sitting directly in front of him and that needed to be threat evaluated more _personally_.

"Dren, prepare my mobile suit…"

"No normal suit sir?"

Char's frown twisted into a smirk. "I do believe I have the Gorgon of Hatte and the Grey Fox of New California in front of me. Let's give them an actual challenge. So I need to be at my best."

"Of course sir." Dren began to smirk as well.

Char nodded and turned to head to the direct access lift to the hangar stopping once inside it to say one final thing. "Dren, when I give the pre-arranged signal, relay it to Nanai's squadron immediately."

His portly second nodded, realizing his CO's intent to draw out and entrap the enemy.

Char's trademark smirk never left his face as the lift closed and raced down several decks to the Musai's main hangar, where his Zaku was already waiting for him.

As was Slender.

"Commander Char!"

"Slender. Get in your Zaku, we're heading out."

The man nodded, eager to get revenge for his lost platoonmates.

Both men entered their respective machines, which were fully armed and fueled, bringing them up from standby status to full combat readiness and entering the launch order, Char wincing as the catapult flung him out from the Musai's bay after undocking from the 'ceiling' of the hangar and locking into the linear catapult.

All the while he felt a familiar pressure… All too familiar.

" _Artesia? It couldn't be… She abhors fighting…"_

Char shook his head as his Zaku linked directly to the goggles in his mask, giving him direct data feeds of the vital information of his suit.

* * *

 ** _Side 7 Local 'airspace.'_**

Samuel glanced at Sayla's comms image as they watched Amuro flail his Gundam's AMBAC system slightly in an attempt to compensate for an overdone thruster burst.

"Why'd his suit's AI let him in? The kid's a complete nugget."

["He's doing better than our CO. Sleggar is _still_ having trouble adjusting Unit 03's setup."] She retorted with mild disdain.

He snorted derisively. "Well no shit, they had Unit Three in password locked demo mode in case any overeager spies tried to steal it. Hard to go anywhere if the suit's joints won't even unlock."

["Well you screwed the metaphorical pooch yourself, mister 'I shot a Zaku next to a critical support beam that keeps the colony's rotation from tearing the hull apart.'"]

Samuel sighed, she was needling him to try and take his mind off Willie's death, it was a pretty dickish way to do it, but he needed to keep his head in the game if he wanted to stay alive.

Then his suit's AI chimed in. **"Enemy contacts detected."**

"How many?"

The screen zoomed in and displayed eleven Zakus approaching… Scratch that, twelve Zakus, the lead one painted red and boasting a command type horn antenna on it.

"Hey Sayla… The lead Zaku seems to be moving at three times the velocity of the others… You don't think…"

["It's him…"] She said simply.

"Damnit…" Ajax opened a channel to the GMs, Guncannons, Amuro's Gundam, and _Rosie_.

"We have a problem…"

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

Bright frowned as he stared at the projections of his pilot's faces on the tac screen. "What kind of problem Lieutenant Ajax?"

["The kind that turns its limiters off and paints the Zaku red and salmon."]

Bright let out a long, heartfelt obscenity as Amuro glanced around in his cockpit, confused.

["What?"]

["He means Char Aznable kid. The Red Comet himself."] Sleggar chimed in, before swearing and hitting the control console of Unit 03 again.

Amuro's face promptly went pale. ["His exploits have to be propaganda… Right?"]

["I was at Loum kid, so was Sleggar… Hell I saw him sink the _Manticore_ firsthand. If he'd bothered to stop and expend the fuel and ammo dealing with my old squadron I'd be _dead_ right now."] Ajax admitted humbly.

"Just keep him away from the dock until we're clear! Do not engage Char at close range and return _immediately_ when ordered… We're going to try something risky to get clear of the system."

["Roger!"] Came the unanimous response as the lines switched back to standard combat channels, Bright adjusting the feeds to watch some of the CIC data.

"Helm! The colony is scrap and the lifepods and emergency evac shuttles are already clear or ejecting, so don't hold back on getting us turned around and out of the docking bay!"

Looking up he blinked as he saw a face he didn't recognize at the ship's primary control console. "Where's Ensign Martinez?"

"KIA sir, he was killed in a plasma main explosion trying to help civilians get to the docking bay." The secondary helmsman, Ensign Patrica Johnson, reported as she checked the ship's maneuvering systems.

Bright frowned. "What's your name?" He asked the civilian woman sitting in front of him.

The woman turned to face him and gave a wry smile. "Mirai Yashima."

Bright recognized the name, Yashima trading was one of the largest non-Greek shipping companies based in Federation space.

"What's your experience?" He asked tentatively, tapping his fingers on the command chair's arm console.

"I've trained on simulators for supertankers and superfreighters in this tonnage, best scores in my class."

Bright tapped his chin as he mused the situation, not ideal but better than nothing. "Alright. Sensor techs, CIC, our primary conn is unfamiliar with this ship, so make sure to give her plenty of advance information... Marker!"

"Sir?"

"I want you and Oscar to boot up our mutual friend. We'll need her for the calculations."

Marker nodded as his eyes widened before glancing over his shoulder at Oscar. "Roger!" They said in unison as they began to input codes and passwords in a specific and practiced sequence.

Bright turned his attention back to the main viewport. "Close all viewport armor plates and get our barriers online! Unsheathe all remaining weapons and blow off the disguise plating!" He ordered as fire control officers tapped on their consoles to follow his command.

* * *

 _ **Side 7 Dock. June 6 SE 0279.**_

Outside the immense vessel, plates began to extend over the white-yellow glow of the ship's viewports, sealing them up to protect against enemy fire as dozens of plates retracted or blew off completely in the case of the disposable steel units as the barrier fields popped into at the fore of the vessel to protect it from frontal assaults, thus revealing the full extent of its immense array of offensive and defensive weapons, and the battle carrier's true name, _EFS Franklin D. Roosevelt CVB-02_. The motto of the vessel, _"We have nothing to fear but fear itself"_ , emblazoned just beneath her bow nameplates. Precision maneuvering verniers fired off as the ship turned in port, barely scraping avoiding scraping the walls due to the vessel's sheer size, its immense main engine outlets glowing a brilliant blue as fiery plasma boiled inside the massive thruster nozzles.

"Bring us out of the bay and extend the main sensor antennas and the wings! All hands prepare for immediate combat!" Bright ordered with a hand gesture he really wasn't sure was inspiring or cheesy.

* * *

 ** _Side 7 Local 'airspace.'_**

Amuro would have gaped at the sighed to the immense gleaming grey and green vessel leaving port… Were he not about to be fighting for his life.

The GMs and Guncannons had stayed back to prevent the ship from being flanked, leaving the three operational Gundams to deal with the Zakus.

And the red one just _had_ to beeline straight for him.

Amuro frowned as he locked on with the beam rifle. "Piece of cake… Right…?" He muttered nervously

He pulled the firing switch and a brilliant magenta beam lanced out, intent on turning the Red Comet into vapor

Like a bolt of lightning Char fired his thrusters and evaded just as the rifle fired, the beam passing just by him and off into space, leaving Amuro dumbfounded.

[That's the one sir! That's the one that killed Denim and Gene!"] Slender reported, rage simmering in his voice, as Char fired his Zaku's primary verniers again, boosting towards the Federal MS.

Stunned at the skillful timing, Amuro was unable to react as Char closed the distance and loomed large in his viewscreens, the Command Zaku's monoeye flaring a brilliant pink.

The Red Comet grinned as he pulled the firing stub on his right-hand control stick.

Screaming, Amuro yanked back on his sticks while thinking about evading out of Char's line of fire. The Gundam responding in kind as ARTORIA engaged the appropriate evasion routines while 120mm shells glanced off the Gundam's armor.

The Zaku glanced down at him as Char huffed. "He's either more skilled or lucky than I thought…"

Additional volleys of beam energy lanced out from the Gundam's beam rifle as Char chased after him, the Red Zaku returning fire and scoring several direct hits on Gundam-02 before firing off a salvo of missiles from the pods mounted on its legs, which were either destroyed by the Gundam's point laser blisters or distracted by a mixed burst of chaff and flares.

Char blinked in shock as he gaped at the suit in front of him. "No wonder I lost two entire platoons! Even a direct hit from my machine gun only scratches the paint! And that response time! Slender, get behind him, the rest of you, keep the other prototypes off us, and whatever you do, do not let them get a lock on you!" Char ordered as his Zaku continued to duel with the Gundam.

["Roger!"] Slender aimed his suit's belt-fed MG and opened fire, the shells bouncing off the Gundam as Amuro tried to bring the shield around while keeping his aim on Char, grimacing as the Red Comet used well timed thruster bursts to increase his velocity, making continued tracking in any given direction difficult.

["Hey kid! This is Sleggar, me and Ryu are en-route to provide support!"]

"R… Roger…" Amuro grunted as Char came in for another close in run. Hyped up on adrenaline, Amuro charged the Gundam forwards, its fist outstretched as shells bounced off the Gundam's left hand, Amuro screaming the entire way.

" _THE HELL?!"_ Char barely had time to dodge the psychotic and ill-planned move before strafing to the right again with his thrusters before Amuro wheeled the Gundam around to get a shot off.

["Behind you! Head up!"] Amuro blinked briefly before remembering that 'up' was on the system's relative Z axis. Flaring his suit's thrusters, he obeyed Ryu's order as Char dodged an incoming volley of beam and cannon shots from Sleggar and Ryu, the Red Comet sending his remaining missiles in the direction of the newcomers, forcing them to back off.

"Damn, another one!" Char growled as he fell back, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor at this moment. "All units withdraw!" He fired off a retreat flare from his suit's torso to signal to anyone who was in heavy enemy ECM and thus unable to get the transmission.

It also served the purpose of notifying Dren to enact stage two of the plan.

Amuro blinked as he turned the Gundam around again, catching Slender in his sights as the standard Zaku attempted to turn away and flee. "Got you…" He pulled the firing stub and sent a beam of energy racing into the Zaku's abdomen.

["COMMANDER CHAR!"] Slender screamed in terror while alarms blared through his suit as its reactor detonated in a brilliant ball of fiery plasma, turning the Zaku into a short lived miniature star.

"Damnit! Not Slender too… Nanai where are you…" Char murmured as he fell back the _Falmel_. As the Blue Gundam moved up to help chase away the seven remaining F model Zakus, he swore he felt that same pressure from before and glanced at it on his screen. _"There's no doubt about it… That_ is _Artesia… To think that she's one of the UW's premier aces…"_ He mused as his suit turned and boosted away, thanking his luck that the others at least had survived, likely because Artesia was distracted by him.

Amuro turned the Gundam to face Char, pulling the firing stub and being rewarded with… Nothing.

"Crap…" Amuro groaned as he realized he'd depleted the twenty standard output shot limit the beam rifle was charged with and turned the Gundam around, figuring he might as well return to the carrier.

" **Energy capacitor depleted, insert rifle into storage rack to recharge."** ARTORIA chimed unhelpfully.

To add insult to injury, eight Z25 _Musais_ decelerated from relativistic velocity in line abreast formation on either side of the four Z50s and began to fire on the Federation units while maneuvering around and in to entrap the _Midway_ -class in a crossfire.

["AMURO, WITHDRAW IMMEDIATELY! WE'RE OUTGUNNED AND OUTNUMBERED!"] Bright ordered as Amuro fell back to the _Roosevelt_. "Yeah… Don't have to tell me twice…" He muttered as he approached the yawning hangar bay of the immense carrier, which was firing off every beam weapon in its arsenal at the sheer number of targets arrayed before it.

Glancing around, he belatedly realized _he_ was the last one to land, before sighing and taking off his helmet after the bay sealed up and was refilled with atmosphere from the dedicated tanks. "Something tells me that I just put a massive target on my back…" Amuro muttered as he wiped a sizeable amount of sweat off his brow.

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

"All mobile suits and surviving armor confirmed aboard and all civilians and surviving crew accounted for!" Oscar confirmed as _Rosie_ charged into the Zeon formation.

"Gunners clear that Zeon garbage out of our way! Helm, stand by for my signal!"

"Roger!" Mirai affirmed as she rested a hand near the jump controls.

The _Roosevelt's_ two dorsal forward triple 406mm beam cannon turrets let loose another salvo at the _Adzam_ as she approached it. The _Musai_ determined to remain an obstacle to the much larger ship as it fired away with every weapon it had.

Bright growled as yellow-green beams impacted the forward barriers from multiple angles as the other Zeon warships started closing in on them from all sides. "Forward gunners; refocus all fire on that Z50 directly in our path! Beams only, we need to conserve our missile and torpedo supply!" He ordered impatiently.

The four forward 406mm triple beam turrets, the two underbow 304mm twin weapons, the two side mounted twin high bore mega-beam cannons, and the 'wing' mounted 304mm twin casemate beam guns all opened fire, as did every one of 203 and 127mm twin dual-purpose beam guns turrets and low bore single beam guns with a firing arc.

The resulting lightshow was impressive by any standard, particularly for what was ostensibly a 'purebred carrier'.

Under the assault, the _Adzam's_ barriers rapidly diminished before failing completely, the ship's armor and hull being cut through almost immediately thereafter, sending gouts of molten metal vapor streaming into space at high velocity wherever beams punched through the cruiser and back out into space.

The _Musai's_ escape pods, shuttles, and the critically damaged _Komusai_ lander rocketed away from the doomed cruiser almost immediately as it spiraled off towards Side 7 at high speed after engaging its engines at full burn, a final attempt to ram their opponent before a hit to the port engine pod and the bridge sent it off course and simultaneously decapitated the vessel.

Bright saw his window, and it was closing by the microsecond. "Retract weapons!" On his command, the guns that could do so retracted into protective housings in mere moments.

Once this was done, Bright gave the critical order.

"JUMP, NOW!" He bellowed as Mirai and Patrica engaged the jump controls, stars turning to streaks as they accelerated to relativistic speeds and then blurred into a brilliant glow as they passed the Schenberg threshold and jumped into subspace.

* * *

 **PZS Falmel.**

Char watched from the bridge of the _Falmel_ , mouth agape, as the Feddie warship performed a jump _within_ Gryps's effective gravity well. Such a thing was unheard of due to the danger that such maneuvers posed to ships, and everything in front of them, should it go wrong.

Collecting himself, he turned to his XO.

"Dren, do we have a course tracked for them?"

Dren nodded as he looked up from a sensor console. "Yes sir! They're headed to the Heliopolis system in Orb's expansion zone!"

Char snorted as he seated himself in his command 'throne'. "Send a message to Le Creuset's flotilla, tell him that a Federal 'battle carrier' is headed in his direction and to be ready for a joint operation with our squadron."

Dren nodded. "Shall we stay long enough to help recover the _Adzam's_ survivors?"

"Of course, have one of Nanai's cruisers remain behind to recover them until another squadron can take charge of the _Komusai_ , upon which it is to rejoin us after taking aboard some of their Zakus, meanwhile transfer that vessel's Zakus and the _Adzam's_ Dopps and remaining Zakus to other ships to help cover our losses until we can replenish them.

Dren nodded he relayed Char's orders whilst the Red Comet observed the recovery operations.

Char frowned as he watched the _Adzam_ tear itself apart as it gouged a deep scar into the hull of the colony. He certainly _was_ going to be in hot water with someone for this. Over two entire platoons of Zakus and a Dopp squadron was one thing… All that _and_ a cruiser was another. "Dren…"

"Sir?"

"What fleet carriers do we have in the sector?"

"We have the second and fourth divisions, each consisting of two _Gaiperon_ -class vessels, a Z75 Musai, two Musakas, a pair of Papuas and a Z25. In addition to their assigned escort formations" Dren replied after checking briefly.

"Open channel to Grand Admiral Dozle… I have a request to make, our current stock of mobile suits may be inferior but if we can sink that 'Trojan Horse'..."

"Then the enemy mobile suits are just salvage waiting to be taken in by our forces once they run out of oxygen and fuel should they refuse to surrender. Clever sir."

Char simply smirked in response, hiding the conflicting emotions bubbling underneath. _"Artesia… Should we sink that ship, don't be a fool…"_

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

Aboard the _Roosevelt_ , Bright sighed as he took the down time to relax while waiting for Ryu to bring Amuro up to the bridge.

"Second Lieutenant Jose and Cadet Ray reporting sir!" Ryu announced as he and Amuro snapped to and saluted.

Bright stood up and walked over, saluting back. "At ease…" He examined Amuro intently. "Your father was supposed to accompany us on this run but was unable to make it due to scheduling conflict and was meeting someone in the North American Central Nervous Command in Washington D.C. when we left Jaburo."

Amuro shrugged, unsure of what to say that wouldn't come off as flippant to the man who was basically the ranking naval officer on the ship. "Can't say I'm surprised sir…"

Bright frowned and rubbed his chin. "Regardless you're under the command of the Mobile Strike Wing Six now, Captain Law will fill you in further about your current assignment." He raised an eyebrow as he spotted movement behind Amuro and Ryu. "And will _someone_ get those delinquent civilians _off_ my bridge! How did they get up here anyways!"

"Aww crap let's scram Hayato!" Kai yelped as the two of them attempted to run and ended up slamming into a wall next to a trio of irate looking marines.

Amuro sighed as he looked back at Bright. "I'll take my leave then sir."

"That'll be all Ensign." Bright stated as he walked back to the command chair.

Amuro blinked in shock. "Ensign…"

Ryu elbowed him and winked. "You're a pilot now whether you like it or not, and unlike the Pact and some of our allies we're not so short of manpower as to put enlistedmen behind the sticks. Well maybe not us in the Space Force at least, can't say anything about the Ground, Maritime or Air Forces. Anyway that makes you an officer, but an officer at the bottom of the totem pole so don't let it get to your head."

Amuro nodded as they walked back to the lift, both glancing at Hayato apologizing to the Marines as one held Kai in a full nelson whilst he tried to escape. "They do this often?"

"Yeah, at least they're not getting beat up this time. Or at least Hayato isn't." Amuro remarked offhandedly.

"Colonial garrison troops tend to be people you don't want to associate with usually, plenty of them are local jerks or personnel who're homesick and just take it out on locals in hopes of being sent back on disciplinary charges, of course I could be wrong and the jerkasses just get the furthest out and worst posts." Ryu admitted as they walked into the lift and headed down several decks to the hangar level.

Bright glanced over to see if the trespassers and been removed and signed. "ETA to Heliopolis."

" **Approximately six hours, we'll have enough time to refuel, repair, and fully load up the suits, thankfully we had enough time to transfer the munitions and spares stockpiles for the GMs and Gundams while docked."** An artificial feminine voice echoed from a speaker on his chair.

Bright nodded and reclined his command chair back, closing his eyes. "Inform me about an hour from now… I'm gonna get some shut-eye in while I can." It _was_ common practice for ship crews to at least attempt to nap during inter-system jumps lasting less than a day.

* * *

Amuro walked into the pilot's rec room for the _Franklin D. Roosevelt_ and blinked as he saw a sizeable number of people idling about, most of them in either pilot-type normal suits or more 'casual' uniforms.

Stopping, he did a reasonably good impression of a deer in the headlights for about thirty seconds before Sleggar finally shook his head and gestured at the meal line for a young woman with green hair and yellow eyes whom Amuro realized was _his_ age to come over and whispered something to her.

She walked over to him and sized him up with a hand on her chin. "So you're the nugget we picked up on Gryps's Side 7… Follow me." She turned and walked off to sizeable round table as Amuro followed her over, noticing three people already sitting there, two redheads and a rather athletic looking guy of clear Japanese descent.

All three of them were looking at Amuro in mild confusion.

"Hey Commander, that the nugget?" The guy of the two red-heads said, Amuro assumed given their similar appearance that they were siblings, an oddity given the EFF supposedly followed ancient policies regarding siblings in the same unit.

"That he is Naoto, we're finally rebuilding the unit." Green hair said as she glanced at him while picking up a slice of Pizza.

Amuro blinked, this time in confusion. "Wait… What?"

"You didn't tell him?" Naoto asked with a raised eyebrow.

She shrugged and glanced at Amuro, the latter still not sure if it was just cosmetic genetic engineering or if there was a reason for her unusual eye and hair color. "Right, blah blah blah, welcome to VFA-154, your callsign is now Knight 5, blah blah blah, Sleggar interrupted me while I was in the meal line so I'm hungry and just don't care about formalities." She said while picking up a slice of Pizza from Suzaku's tray, to his credit Kurugui just shrugged it off.

Amuro still looked confused by the informality of the woman whom he realized was now his new CO.

Naoto shook his head while putting a hand on the red-head girl as she clenched her fists and started to stand up. "Don't mind her she's usually a colossal pain in the ass. I'm Naoto Stadtfeld, this is my sister Kallen" The red headed girl gave him a wave. "And that's Suzaku Kururugi." Suzaku gave Amuro a thumbs up as he swallowed part of an omlette. "And the aforementioned pain in the ass is our CO, Chloe Chaffee, who's just about the only one of us with a traditional callsign, hers being C.C., welcome to the Black Knights."

Amuro nodded as he sat down. "Amuro Ray, I guess I'm the assigned pilot of Gundam unit 02 if what Ryu told me on the way here is any indication."

Kallen gaped at him and stood up on impulse, pointing a spork at him. "Wait, so you're the guy who just made ace in a day on Zakus alone, and on his first combat sortie to boot!?"

"The first four weren't really anticipating me and the last one I just got lucky." Amuro admitted as Naoto patted him on the back.

"Humble about your accomplishments, I like that, keeps your ego in check, which is something that might save your ass someday." Naoto stated while Chloe scarfed down her pizza.

"So… If I'm gonna be working with you guys, who are the other squadrons?" Amuro asked.

"Here in CVW 6 for the Saberfish and Core Fighter complement we have VF-1978; Vigilantes, under Captain Thrace and VF-1984; Seekers, under Commander Latta's command. Mobile suit squads consist of our unit of course, plus VFA-908; Skull Squadron, under Captain Law's direct command, VFA-25; Fists, under Commander Jose, VFA-133; Raging Busters, under Commander John, VFA-451; White Dingo, under Commander Rayer, VFA-988; Gorgons, under Commander Mass, who is Captain Law's XO by the way, and VFA-845; Shrike, under Commander Jenko." Kallen rattled off as she used her fingers as a reference for the number of units aboard.

Amuro frowned. "That seems a little… Understrength… Especially given the average Federation mobile suit unit is eight to twelve suits…"

"That's because we still haven't assigned the new GMs and Ajax's Gundam to a unit, they'll probably get their own unit actually but that requires an assload of paperwork. And given that this carrier is supposed to hold a max load of at least 150 suits under normal conditions, we'll probably be picking up more at some point provided we don't die" Naoto stated realisitcally.

Chloe mumbled something through her pizza filled mouth.

Everyone just sighed as they waited for her to finish before speaking. "Alright, now say whatever you were trying to say because none of us speak slob." Kallen remarked dryly.

"I was saying, that you lot might want to stop chatting and get something to eat and do whatever hygiene stuff you need to do before we come out of subspace in a few hours."

Amuro frowned. "So we're heading to Orb's expansion zone then."

Kallen raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

"I lived on Side 7 for an entire year with nothing to do but watch Orb flagged freighters and tankers bring in loads of supplies when I wasn't going through hell in some boot camp that was desperately trying to compete with Jaburo for the biggest stick up everyone's ass award." Amuro muttered, deciding to not let them know about his indiscretions with classified information in his father's study for the moment.

Chloe burst into laughter. "Oh I've got to use that at some point, just a matter of timing it though."

"So I take it I ended up with the 'misfit' group then?" Amuro asked, already anticipating how this would go.

"To be fair, we got shoved into this squadron straight from our R&R at the EA's command base on Artemis because the previous iteration was wiped out at Loum."

Their squadron leader coughed irritably.

"Well, almost wiped out…"

Amuro frowned as Chloe glared at them. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not a jinx like that poor SOB Sanders." She muttered.

Naoto shook his head and sighed. "Terry 'the Reaper' Sanders… Poor guy, not sure if he's just lucky to survive or everyone else in his squadrons are all really unlucky…"

"Who…?"

Suzaku waved off Amuro's question. "It's just a bunch of scuttlebutt about some guy who's not even in the same sector as us. Anyways… You faced down the Red Comet, what was it like?"

Amuro thought about it for a minute or two before finally speaking. "He was on another level compared to me, honestly speaking… If I was in any mobile suit I know of _but_ the Gundam during my one on one with his Zaku, I would be dead right now…"

"Holy shit..." Kallen mumbled.

A palor had fallen over half the rec room as Amuro realized that a lot of the other pilots had taken an interest in their conversation and began murmuring among themselves

"Alright that's enough out of the peanut gallery! Go back to your food people!" Sayla shouted as she walked into the room.

* * *

Sleggar glanced at her as she sat down next to him, the two of them watching as Amuro and his new squadmates went back to idle chatter. "Glad to see you could make it Sayla. You talk to Bright about anything."

"Just with Samuel and Pierce, Bright is asleep on the bridge, trying to get some shuteye before the next engagement."

"You think Zeon will attack us in Orb?"

"Sleggar, we both know that ZAFT has deployed a 'neutrality' patrol to Heliopolis, they must have found the EA's G Project if they actually bothered to deploy a squadron at the maximum size authorized by the Antarctic treaty into the Neutral zone, albeit with two 'independent' groups backing them up like Zeon had." Sayla responded as she looked through the menu from a distance, finding nothing she wanted to eat.

"What is it with everyone and damn Gundams, Dr. Tomino makes one statement forty years ago about a theoretical military unit designed to be nearly unstoppable compared to its contemporaries and suddenly everyone in the UW wants to build one of their own." Sleggar muttered under his breath.

"Beats me… But about Amuro…"

"You think he has that potential?"

"I do, that's why he and the rest of those kids are lumped together… Better to keep the lot of them in one place, since they're all a step away from their awakening, their reaction times, empathetic abilities, spatial awareness and critical thinking abilities are all indicative of those who've evolved to humanity's next potential stage."

"Don't let Patrick Zala hear you say that, he still thinks his nation of genetically engineered Ubermensch are the future of mankind." Sleggar remarked. "Not like said nation is actually his _yet_."

"Patrick Zala is a blight upon our species, his ego is more inflated than Gihren's and he's long lost his grip on his sanity if Clyne has to constantly make excuses for why his own defense committee's chairman cannot accompany him to public forums after that PR debacle regarding his rant that 'naturals are obsolete' a month ago. The fact coordinators are the result of people gene modding for the hell of it and then turning it into a caste system rather than for any specific use for colonization as was intended is a further slight on them." Sayla growled, it was not for nothing that the militaries of the other member nations of the pact only begrudgingly accepted the Zodiac Alliance Federal Troops into their ranks, as the coordinator radicals who controlled it and their bloated sense of self-superiority made the old skin color race conflicts of the distant past at their _worst_ look tame.

Sleggar shrugged and changed the subject. "So, is the Captain alright?"

"Docs say he's expected to survive but that he'll never be able to command a ship again without medical cybernetics." Sayla said grimly and looked aside.

"Damn… So Bright really is in command for the long haul then… Poor kid is in over his head."

"We're _all_ in over our heads with the Red Comet behind us and the White Phantom of Endymion in front of us."

"Oh of course it's Le Creuset… It's always the bastards with masks" Sleggar mumbled before looking at her. "No offense…"

Sayla simply glared at him, unamused.

"What? I said no offence."

"Just tell the Black Knights that they're trading their HA Guncannons for the first units from the second group of GMs once Omar's engineers have them assembled so they can keep up with Amuro."

"Right, there was another twenty crated units wasn't there."

"Forty to sixty actually, enough to equip them, your squad, part of the Black Knives, and the White Dingos if we want to maintain a sizeable parts stockpile. They would have all been fully assembled and we'd have pilots and parts for them if the original schedule was kept, but alas."

"Hope they're better than the developmental model GMs that the space forces got, especially since the ground pounders got better units." Sleggar snarked as he leaned back.

"Ajax seems to think so, and they're outfitted with Gundam-type twin-saber backpacks and full on BAUVA beam rifles as well, so we can salvage from those if our machines get damaged in lieu of a resupply."

Sleggar whistled. "You're expecting a long haul with no support, that's gonna be hell on morale you know that? Especially for the refugees."

Sayla didn't answer, changing the subject instead, much to Sleggar's annoyance in her using his own tactic against him. "What about those three civilians Amuro knows?"

"The girl, Fraw Bow I think, is enlisting with the medical staff, our top medical officer is currently the _dental surgeon_ after Captain Makarov and his surgical staff were fragged by a salvo of 120mm shells from a Zaku, so we're lucky the girl has a prominent level of hands-on surgical expertise from her family's clinic.

"And the two idiots?"

"Kobyashi has attracted the interest of the Marines with his martial arts record, and Shiden is enough of a jackass to be a jarhead, he impressed their tankers by talking about some dumbass stunt he pulled on the colony with a construction vehicle and they took a liking to him. Since the ground pounders lost two of their Guncannon pilots on the colony and since VMFA-318 is assigned to our MEF complement and not the wing, I'm tempted to let them have the two."

"Fair, we get a Gundam pilot, they get two Guncannon pilots and some of the GMs to back them up. And the other volunteers get spread throughout the crew."

Sleggar nodded as he reclined in his seat, having nothing else important to say. "So, anything else important or do you want to just shoot the breeze?"

"Sure." Sayla said absentmindedly as she poked through a tablet.

* * *

 **PZS Falmel.**

[ _ **"YOU WANT WHAT!?"**_ ] Grand Admiral Dozle Zabi roared as he clenched a solid steel swagger stick that he used more as a 'stress ball' than a symbol of rank, crushing and deforming it in his massive fists, the visceral nature of it being caught in every detail by the holographic projection of the Solomon command center.

Char gulped slightly, such a sight would leave even the hardest men slightly unnerved. "I'm requesting the second and fourth carrier divisions and their escort formations to assist in hunting down a new federal battle carrier." He repeated.

["Oh I thought I had gone deaf for a moment, because I thought I was imagining things when I heard the **_Red Comet_** requesting _two_ **strategic reserve** units to hunt down a _single_ ship!"]

"Sir, with all due respect, the units belonging to this trojan horse have caused _significant_ damage to my squadron, I've lost over two Zaku platoons and a Dopp squadron in addition to the cruiser _Adzam_ , roughly half of my mobile suit losses were incurred to a single one of the Feddie V Project prototypes."

Dozle stopped and gaped for several seconds as some of his own subordinates backed away from him, setting his jaw evenly he finally spoke again. ["Very well then, I'm dispatching your requested units and authorizing deployment of a full replenishment."]

"Thank you si-"

["I'm not finished Commander, in addition, I will be _personally_ coming to see the situation for myself and am bringing most of my guard's units. If it's as bad as you say it is I want to _personally_ put this horse down before it turns from an annoyance to a **menace**."]

Char stiffened. It wasn't every day that Dozle Zabi himself came this far out to the frontline. Combined with the deployment of two carrier divisions in addition to Dozle's personal unit of the Imperial Guards, led by ace pilot Shin Matsunaga, and whatever other units he brought and this painted a _massive_ and irresistible target on their entire force. "Yes sir, when should we expect you?"

["By the end of the month, preferably you'll have at least chased the Trojan Horse into Garma's area of operations by then so we may _ensure_ its capture or destruction."]

"Yes sir, but about my resupply?"

["Commodore Gaddam's supply unit will pick up your additional Zakus and pilots and transfer them at the assigned supply point, you also now have the authority to requisition allied units if they are unassigned at the moment to aid you in any given engagement. Or coordinate with them if your goals coincide with theirs."]

"Thank you sir."

["Very well then, good hunting Red Comet, Dozle out."] The transmission cut off and Char glanced at Dren.

"Sir?"

"Dren, you and I need to prepare a game plan to have us drive the Trojan horse into Garma's AO. I want it done by the time we're halfway to Heliopolis."

"Yes sir."

Char frowned as his cruiser squadron jumped, taking the slightly longer but safer route through Zeon controlled territory.

 _"Is the Grand Admiral sure he knows what he's doing...?"_ He mused as he watched the vibrant glows of subspace pass by the bridge viewport.

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

"And this! Is our Squadron's quarters." Chloe exclaimed half dramatically as the five of them walked into a room filled with wall bunks and other amenities typical of a warship's crew quarters.

"Co-ed? Well it makes sense given the space limitations on a warship." Amuro admitted.

"At least we're better off than the Shrikes, their bunks are just over a plasma feed line for the port side high bore MPCs, and the temperature control measures don't exactly work that well due to the fact the ship was kinda rushed into service." Suzaku quipped dryly, causing Amuro to shiver at the thought of how high the temperatures must get at times.

"Cut the chatter guys, we have another five or so hours before we revert so try and get some shuteye in while you can." Kallen said as she climbed in bed, wearing her uniform.

Amuro shrugged and got into his bunk as well. "Might as well, the ship is still on combat alert, so I'd rather have four hours of sleep than none when the shooting starts."

The others nodded as Naoto clapped his hands. "Lights."

The room's lighting dimmed and the remainder of VFA-154 climbed into their bunks and fell asleep one by one, leaving Amuro as the last one awake as he thought about something.

"Char… Why did I feel something when you were making a beeline for me..."

Amuro shook his head and drifted off to sleep as well.

* * *

Pain, Amuro awoke to mind-splitting pain, it felt like thousands of terrified voices were screaming in his head at once.

Screaming in pain and clutching his head, Amuro fell out of his bunk, barely noticing his squadmates as they too screamed and clawed at their heads.

The doorway opened as Sayla and Sleggar rushed in, Ajax watching the hallway behind them.

"Sayla! Explain to me what the hell is causing this."

"Heliopolis Alpha, the orbital colony Orb was building around Heliopolis IVa, something happened to it…"

"Like Side 7 or…?"

"Worse, much worse… Even if the casualties of such an event are low, those close to their awakening are susceptible to feedback from mass traumatic events, it's really how the Federation knows these abilities exist at all..."

"Damnit all, and we have another thirty minutes before we revert…"

Ajax glanced back at them as he waved off a pair of concerned crewmen who were coming down the hall. "I got a report from the bridge, Bright says our new primary conn operator is fine but that she was suffering from plenty of discomfort, she might be a low level, same with that Fraw Bow girl."

Sayla mumbled something under her breath in response. "Well don't look at me Sayla, _you're_ the one with the experience in these matters." Ajax responded as he glanced down the hallway.

" **Amuro, Amuro, are you alright Amuro?"** A tinny voiced asked as Haro flapped into the room, floating just off the floor.

"The hell? He has a Haro?" Sleggar asked in bemusement as he realized the artificial gravity was still on.

"Modified at that, micro vacuum jets capable of keeping it aloft, has to be custom." Ajax pointed out.

"Would you two focus and drag his squadmates over here!" Sayla snarled as Haro bumped Amuro.

"Right. Sorry." Sleggar apologized as he grabbed Chloe and Suzaku while Ajax dragged over the Stadtfeld siblings.

Sayla exhaled softly before mumbling something as the other two placed the writing teenagers in a line in front of her, Sleggar and Ajax, in spite of being incapable of mentally connecting with others on such a level as Sayla could they nonetheless felt an unnerving sensation crawl up their spines as the Knights stopped spasming and fell back asleep after a while. Sleggar catching Sayla as she nearly fell over from mental exhaustion.

"You okay?" Sleggar asked, a genuinely concerned expression on his face.

"Yeah, I'll be fine… The feedback wasn't the issue, it was actually amplifying Amuro's own fears and projecting it into his squadmates…"

"Fears about what?"

"Char…"

[ _ **"All hands stand by for realspace reversion in twenty minutes. Repeat, all hands stand by for realspace reversion in twenty minutes. All combat personnel report to ready stations in ten, repeat, all combat personnel report to ready stations in ten."**_ ] The ship's PA announced, cutting off any questions that the other two aces might have had.

Amuro rubbed the back of his head as he and his squadmates groaned and woke up. "What happened…"

"Ugh, what happened…" He asked.

Sayla glanced away as she stood up. "I'll explain later, report to the hangar in ten minutes, I want all of you ready for space combat in five." With that the three of them left the Black Knight squadron to their devices, Sleggar grumbling about how he was the CSG the entire way down the hall.

Amuro stood up and helped Chloe to her feet. "You alright?"

"Yeah… That was one messed up dream…"

The two of them glanced at their moaning squadmates and then back at eachother. "You don't think it was a dream either." Amuro whispered, more a statement than a question.

"Nope… Seeing Commander Mass suddenly appear and drive off that demonic version of the Red Comet before us waking up simultaneously in the same dream can't be a coincidence… Nor can the fact we both somehow instinctively know we had the same dream."

Amuro nodded at her as he walked over to his locker and frowned, remembering he had no spare clothing aside from his dirty civilian clothing and the uniform he was currently wearing. "Where's the ship's exchange, for posterity's sake?"

"Right, you have literally nothing but the clothes on your back, some uniform they gave you, your ID, and that Haro unit don't you…" She said with a wry grin

"Pretty much…"

"The ShX for the pilots should be near the rec room. The Marines have their own and the naval crew has theirs."

"Thanks."

She nodded at him before grabbing something from a locker and heading out the door. "By the way, when we're out in the void or planetside in the field, it's all business. Undertsood?"

Amuro saluted. "Yes Ma'am!"

She smirked and walked out.

Suzaku slapped him on the back. "Commander's a piece of work isn't she, remember the fraternizing regs though rookie, I saw you looking at her as she left."

Amuro sputtered a bit in response.

Kallen slugged Suzaku in the shoulder on her way out. "Oi, Kururugi, keep your head out of the gutter and get a move on!"

"Jeez Kallen I was only needling him..." Suzaku followed her out, rubbing his arm.

Naoto simply chuckled. "Hurry up Amuro! Captain Law'll be pissed if you're late!"

"Right!" Amuro followed after the rest of his squad.

* * *

Ajax raised an eyebrow as he put his helmet on while watching the Knights rush in and head to their ready lockers before shaking his head and heading down to the hangar deck.

Amuro blinked in brief distraction at his female squadmates as he remembered that the ready room was co-ed as well before averting his gaze and dressing himself.

"Like what you see Five?" Chloe asked in an obnoxiously teasing manner.

"Lay off him Knight Lead." A man wearing a bluish normal suit said as he walked out from behind a bank of lockers, the patch on the breast reading 'White Dingo' on it with a stylized image of a canine holding the EFF's north star emblem in its teeth.

"Alright alright, just take that stick out of your ass Rayer, I was just teasing."

"You do realize Knight Four looked ready to deck you right? Keep some order in your squadron, your attitude might keep morale up but god help you if the brass see you acting like this." The leader of the White Dingos said sagely before heading out into the hangar to join his pilots.

"He's right you know…" Suzaku pointed out.

"Yeah I know… Doesn't stop me from not caring so long as I can get away with it…" Chloe murmured as she tied her long hair in a bun before putting on her helmet.

"Alright you lot, get to your suits, we revert in ten minutes!" She ordered.

The four of them, also wearing their normal suits, snapped to as protocol overtook informality. "Yes Ma'am!" They shouted in unison before rushing to the hangar, their squad leader following after them.

* * *

Amuro felt a sensation of weightlessness take over as he stepped over the hanger threshold from the ready room. _"They must be using artificial freefall here to enable easier maintenance on the MS…"_ He thought as he sailed over to the Gundam, which was docked alongside the Guncannons of his teammates.

Slipping inside the cockpit he began the startup sequence in the manual, linking his normal suit to the Gundam and watching ARTORIA's Excalibur icon pop up in the corner of his RSD.

" _ **Advanced Recording and Tactical Operations Reflex Intelligent Assistance system. Version, RX-78-2/02 'Gundam'. Online… Adjusting pilot information input… Welcome back Ensign Ray."**_

"Nice to hear from you too Artoria…" Amuro noted that the AI apparently had him labeled as the MS's designated pilot now. "Begin preflight checks."

" _ **Affirmative, beginning pre-flight checklist now, syncing to VFA-154 tactical comms."**_ The AI droned as Amuro went through the checklist and chattered with the crew chief about the weapons loadout, hearing his squadmates do the same over the comms.

Switching channels, he directly addressed Omar about a request he had. "Chief Fang, load the type B backpack on, I have a hunch I'll need heavier firepower and we don't have the bazookas uncrated and assembled yet." Amuro said as his helmet began projecting information on the primary panoramic view-screens of the cockpit, which now displayed the Gundam's exterior.

["Alright, just give us a minute but you'll need to verify the connections electronically while I check the physical ones."] Omar responded as Amuro 'felt' the Gundam's backpack being removed by a set of manipulator arms and replaced while he went over the rest of the checklist, sounding off systems checks one by one as the deck hands confirmed their functionality.

["Alright Amuro, physical connections established with the Type B backpack, we're loading the ammo mags now, dump charging the saber, and fueling her up, it'll be another minute or two, but because unlike Ajax's this one was stored clean it's by necessity."]

"Roger… All connections are green, testing thruster maneuvering and pilot igniters… Now."

["Looks good, test the cannon mechanisms next, the safeties are still on so the cannon shells won't load and the coils won't charge to firing levels."]

"Roger…" Amuro tested the mechanisms and Omar gave his main camera a thumbs up.

["Alright you're good to go, let us clear out and seal her up. Once that's done you're relying on your own atmosphere tanks from here on out."]

"Roger." Amuro checked his suit's seals once, twice, and then a third time. "Confirming normal suit integrity nominal."

["Sealing her up now, filling atmosphere tanks. Check for any irregularities."]

"Roger…" Amuro watched a piece of thin sheet plastic float around, a crude test but one that had worked brilliantly for centuries at detecting air leaks in small spacecraft.

"Sensors are green and the plastic hasn't flown towards any areas of negative pressure."

["Roger, proceed to portside lower catapult one once hangar control has cleared you. Chief Omar, out."]

"Roger that. Ensign Ray, out." Amuro had the Gundam take a step forwards and slot in next to Kallen's red and orange Guncannon in the catapult line once hangar control gave him clearance to move, on his suit's sensors he heard atmosphere being drained into holding tanks after the hangar bulkheads were sealed up and the deck crew attached to movable hard points in the ship via tether lines.

[ **"Realspace reversion in three… two… one…"** ] An automated voice chimed as the ship lurched slightly and reverted to relativistic speeds. [ **"Deceleration in five… four… three… two… one…"** ] Amuro shifted forwards slightly as the ship decelerated back to proper sublight speeds.

An electric bosun's whistle came over the tactical channels followed by an ancient pre-recorded alarm clanging, interrupting anything Kallen might have been trying to grumble about regarding the deceleration.

[ _"General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations! I repeat, General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations!"_ ] The Boson announced before rattling off a series of orders for anyone hapless enough to have not heard the pre-reversion alert announcement.

The hangar doors opened up as Amuro stepped onto the catapult and had the Gundam get into a launch stance. Outside he saw a vast debris field, the ruins of an O'Neil cylinder, spreading out before him…

["Holy shit…"] Someone muttered under their breath on comms.

"This is Knight 5, launching!" Amuro shouted as the magnetic catapult shot his MS forwards and out into space, followed by his squadron and several other MS shortly afterwards.

In the distance he could see the flashes of gunfire, missile detonations and beam weaponry among the debris.

" _Out of the frying pan and into the fire… Our luck is already terrible isn't it…"_

Checking his weapons systems and promptly turning the safeties off, Amuro waited for Chloe's orders.

["Alright Knights, we're diving into the fireworks to save an equally hapless bunch of guys from the Eternia Alliance apparently."] She stated. ["Follow my lead and don't get cocky, because _somehow_ ZAFT managed to get their hands on some of the EA's prototype mobile suits, and I use prototype lightly because these are combat capable testbeds like all the four project V units we have are, all of which are _equal_ to the Gundam that five is piloting in terms of power so don't fuck around."]

A muted chorus of rogers were her response.

" _Not just into the fire then, but into a max burn flame while doused in cooking oil…"_ Amuro amended his previous thought as he swerved past a damaged colony lifeboat and weaved through scattered cars and buildings in the vacuum. _"Just our luck…"_

* * *

AN: Ayy, finally got it done (As of the initial writing of this AN) so… Eh. Expect something in the future.

Now to pre-empt any questions I really wanted to take the classic Gundam formula and kinda turn it on its head a bit.

Amuro is stuck with a bunch of other budding newtypes (represented by a quartet of Code Geass expies), and is in a much more professional setting than White Base ever was, albeit still not as professional as it could be because reasons.

That said as a civilian I have no idea what a lot of military procedure is but I want to get the point across that this iteration of the "Black Knights" are practically irregulars outside of combat, and that I am forced to take a few liberties due to my lack of any firsthand experience with military roles, especially those of a crew organized like that of a modern warship.

Coupled with Cassius's survival, albeit in no condition to take command but serving as a mentor to Bright, and Dozle taking our heroes _much_ more seriously than he did in MSG or Origin. It means I'm throwing Amuro to the wolves and it's up to him to fight his way out.

On the technical side, these early production GMs are just the baseline GM from MSG but with the MG 2.0 skirt armor (because screw the metal diaper of the original Okawara design), while the current block of Guncannons are closer to a modernized 77-3, with the older post-Loum blocks being the 77-2. Not quite the 77D but we're getting there (The 0083, 0080 and 08th designs are some of my favorites for the federation tbh.)

As for the _Gaiperons_ , well Zeon is kinda based on the same aesthetic as Gamilas so they get Garmilas ships (mostly small craft like fighters) scattered here and there where they work, aesthtically adjusted to fit with the rest of Zeon's stuff. Same for their admittedly lackluster variety of armored units (not MS).

Oh and the standard EFF battle armor is based on the EDF troopers from Red Faction: Guerrilla whilst the light armor is just a more futuristic version of the combat uniform gear from Origin.

Anywho on to some technical details.

* * *

 ** _Midway_** **-class Battle Carrier** : One of the newest warship classes in the EFSF, at nearly 1.4 Kilometers long, the _Midway_ -class represents one of the greatest strategic investments in warship design in the past century, exceeded only by a handful of warship designs such as the _Birmingham_ and _Gwadan_ -class superbattleships, and the _Dolos_ and _Gondwana_ -class megacarriers. Armed with six triple 406mm beam cannon turrets, allocated three dorsal and three ventral, with a total of four ahead of the bridge tower and two aft. two 304mm twin beam cannon turrets mounted one each under the ship's twin bows. A pair of twin high bore high-mega beam cannons mounted inside the 'shields' at the base of where the ship's prows connect to the main hull, two 304mm twin casemate beam cannons mounted one per radiator wing, twelve twin 203 mm secondary gun turrets, twenty-four twin 127mm high angle beam cannon turrets, forty single medium bore beam cannon mounts, and the most impressive array of VLS cells, torpedo tubes, AA/PD defenses, and ECM and countermeasures arrays on a vessel of its type, while being armored in Gundanium Composites and protected by the most advanced barrier grid yet fitted to a federation warship, rendering a _Midway_ nearly invulnerable to all but the heaviest attacks. Loaded with a maximum complement of over 150 mobile suits, plus a full wing of fighter craft, the _Midway_ -class also carries a sizeable Marine expeditionary force, including armor, artillery, and air support, inside its lower bays, allowing the ship to utilize its Schenberg craft system to full effect in planetary assaults, and boasts amphibious capabilities as well for water landings in lieu of open areas capable of handling the ship. Additionally the class boasts one of the most impressive CIC suites and bridge setups in human space, with the vessels being rumored as carrying specially designed computer matrices capable of handling true Smart AI. These capabilities come at a cost, and mass production of the class is supposedly being limited to only three or four dozen units at most due to the amount of man-hours required for construction and the immense cost of the quantities of Gundanium required to construct it.

 ** _Z25_** ** _Musai_ -class Destroyer: **The 300-meter long Z25 _Musai_ is Zeon's current mainstay destroyer, armed with two twin 130mm long barreled beam cannon turrets and an impressive array of AA/PD weapons and torpedos, which combined with its powerful sensor and targeting arrays, make the Z25 a threat even to mobile suits when deployed properly. While boasting longer endurance than the _Gagaul_ -class, the Z25 is still stymied by its low mobile suit complement of only a single MS team and half a standard fighter squadron. Whilst technically inferior to the _Musaka_ -class Destroyer, the Z25 remains in constant production as its design is more than amenable to new mobile suit models, thus ensuring continued frontline service for the foreseeable future.

 ** _Gaiperon_ -Class Fleet Carrier:** One of the standard fleet carrier classes of the Zeon space forces, the 880-meter _Gaiperon's_ design is viewed by many as an unfortunate throwback to a time of early naval aviation, when nation states didn't quite understand what was the ideal configuration for such vessels. Whilst its four stacked flight decks boast impressive launch and recovery capabilities, should the ship's admittedly powerful barriers fail they rapidly turn into a liability due to the class's relatively thin armor, as inside each deck dozens of ammo magazines and hangar/repair bays are packed, with crew quarters and engineering scattered throughout the vessel where appropriate. Indeed, while the class carries a total of nearly _four hundred_ strike craft and fighters, this is tempered by its lack of any weapons heavier than eight twin 203mm beam cannon turrets with limited firing arcs, although it boasts an acceptable twenty-four 130mm twin high angle beam cannon turrets and an impressive AA/PD suite, including VLS and box launchers for interceptor missiles and torpedos. Several variations of the _Gaiperon_ are known to exist, usually broken up by construction flight or refit, all are to be respected for their impressive strike capabilities, robust Schenberg craft systems and powerful command and control centers, which are said to use multi-linked AI to aid in controlling vast numbers of strike craft while in fleet formation and are listed as strategic level targets. That said, key flaws exist such as the flight deck crews requiring hard linked atmosphere lines due to their constant exposure during flight operations at high altitudes in atmosphere and in exo-atmospheric or other less friendly environments to human biology.


	3. A Pegasus and an Angel

AN: So apparently beam weapons function as energy-based railguns, in that they accelerate their particles to high velocities, whereupon friction does the damage for them.

That said I wonder how long their magnetic containment fields last because thus in theory they have infinite lethal range in space like ballistic weapons…

Also, apologies for the slow buildup but really, chapter five is probably when things will hit the proverbial fan and we actually get into some real action.

Also I'm gonna be moving the technical stuff to a separate set of omakes because it just seems like word padding at this point after I literally wrote up 13,000 non background fluff words for this one.

As for the OCs, they are side characters primarily, largely to 'fill out the ranks' so to say, although Willie Kemp is a canon minor character from the Origin manga, and was the assigned pilot of the RX-78-02 before he got murderized by Gene.

On that note the Knights are going to serve as an vehicle to aid Amuro's character development, and partially because I didn't want to use 08th characters like MSG: Alpha did because that's just ripping someone's idea off, he really didn't go _full_ Newtype until he met Lalah in MSG all things considered, that said they aren't going to be as impactful on the story as some might think, this is still primarily Amuro's story regardless of how it swaps between POVs.

Yeah, some of them probably will die later on as more battles start taking their toll on the ranks.

Of course we'll have Hayato and Kai in action by then since... Well, it does take time to train pilots even with crash courses.

* * *

 _ **June 7 SE 0279. Heliopolis Alpha, Heliopolis II L4, Heliopolis System. Orb Union Space.**_

Amuro fired a burst of his maneuvering verniers off to slide around a piece of large debris as he watched a car glance off his mobile suit's shield, barely affecting his trajectory, Amuro clenched his fist around his control sticks as he tried to avoid wondering whether anyone had been inside the vehicle when it was ejected after the colony suffered a critical structural failure.

"Artoria, scan OMNI frequencies again, we need to know what the hell is going on." Amuro ordered.

" **Affirmative."** The AI responded as Knight lead chimed in.

["Five, you're too far out in front, we can't cover you!"]

"I've got a plan, I'll rush the ZAFT troops and keep them occupied while you hit them from behind, they're already preoccupied with the Alliance ship anyways, so you'll have a free reign for the first couple of salvos." Amuro reported and then cut comms before Chloe could respond.

* * *

Chloe snarled and grit her teeth. She'd have _words_ with Amuro later about operating as part of a team. Even if she could understand his logic it didn't make it any less jarring for him to just go ahead with his plan without any additional input from the rest of them, that would get someone killed because none of them knew Amuro well enough to know exactly what he was attempting, at least not yet…

Bringing her Heavyarms Guncannon's targeting sensor over a _Laurasia_ -class frigate that was plinking ion cannon fire into the debris field, surrounded by GINNs and Infestus fighters, she lined up her shots and waited for the barrier field on the ZAFT ship to redirect in the face of a more immediate threat.

"Knight Lead to Knights two, three, and four, fire on my command, and try not to hit the nugget and his _very_ expensive mobile suit while you're at it."

Her remaining teammates gave affirmative answers, all equally annoyed by Amuro's current antics given their tones.

"Fire." She pulled the firing stub for her shoulder cannons and sent two linear accelerated shells downrange, followed by three more pairs from the other Black Knight Guncannons.

* * *

Amuro darted around a ruined apartment complex floating freely in the void as a trio of GINNs chased after him, rolling the suit onto its back he fired a beam rifle shot, coring the 'highest' of them from head to pelvis and causing its reactor to detonate, the other two machines backed off, their machines charred and damaged from the thermal emissions of the detonation.

Amuro smirked slightly as he rolled the Gundam around and under the ZAFT frigate and boosted towards the OMNI IFF signals, which were outnumbered by ZAFT according to the intercepts he was getting, watching the picket _Laurasia_ -class break apart under a fusillade of Guncannon fire off to his right, and seeing _Rosie_ plowing through the wreckage behind him on his rear-view camera, swatting debris with its beam guns.

"They're gonna chew my ass for what I'm doing…" He admitted to himself.

Dodging the wreckage of an OMNI M78B3 Bulldog anti-armor/air light tactical vehicle he aimed the Gundam's beam rifle at a damaged white/grey CGUE and pulled the trigger just as the ZAFT machine noticed him and dodged.

"There's that feeling again, like when I was fighting Char…" Amuro shook his head and evaded a spray of 76mm rounds by side-slipping behind an office building, drawing his beam saber in the process but not activating it yet.

His caution was vindicated when a GINN with a shotgun came _over_ the building and maneuvered to drop down on him, Amuro reflexively slashing it through the torso and firing a burst from his verniers to move away as it slowly drifted towards a mass of cars and suburban housing, firing a shot from the Gundam's shoulder cannon at a passing _Nazca_ -class, knocking out one of its beam cannons and forcing it to back off from whatever it was firing at.

Turning he prepared to move away and rounded the corner.

Unfortunately, he ended up face to face with a reddish, Gundam-type MS bearing a _ZAFT_ IFF tag.

"OH SHIT!" Amuro boosted backwards, as did the stolen OMNI Machine, still marked as unknown, before a datalink update switched its model ID to GAT-X303 Aegis.

"Seriously! Did Dr. Tomino have _that_ much influence with his Gundam theory!" Amuro shouted as he aimed the RX-78's beam rifle at it.

" **Unknown."** Artoria chimed, Amuro swearing he could hear some snark behind that, he'd have to order the AI to keep quiet unless it was absolutely important later.

"Shut up." He grumbled as he and the Aegis stared eachother down.

* * *

Athrun Zala could hardly believe his eyes, a Federation mobile suit bearing an unhealthy resemblance to the Strike that Kira was piloting sitting directly in front of him… Pointing its rifle straight at him and the Aegis.

"Of course, this just had to be Athrun's day." He muttered sarcastically. "Shinn! Quit fucking around with the Gaia and get over here! I need backup!" He ordered.

In the distance, the GAT-X256 Impulse turned its head towards the Aegis. ["The hell? Another G-Weapon?!"]

"Worse, it's one of those new federal MS Captain Gladys informed us about from the Red Comet's warning." Athrun clarified.

["Well I'd love to help you, but I've got my hands full with the X388 _and_ X324!"] Shinn responded as he barely avoided another particle beam courtesy of the Chaos's Callidus Kai beam cannon while the Gaia went in for a beam saber strike that he blocked with the Impulse's shield.

Athrun frowned as he watched the Strike move in alongside the newcomer before a radio transmission came across the ZAFT channels.

["This is Le Creuset to all units, withdraw immediately and regroup, EFSF units have just arrived and we're currently outgunned following the loss of the _Fermi_ and its complement."]

Athrun swore, turned away and headed off, transforming the Aegis into its MA mode for extra speed, glancing back at the view of the Strike in his rear cameras in the process, he'd figure out how to deal with this additional information regarding Kira when there _wasn't_ a Federation carrier and its strike wing ready to slot him with particle beams, missiles and lead if he so much as **existed** wrong.

* * *

Amuro sighed as he lowered the Gundam's beam rifle whilst the _Roosevelt_ and her complement plowed through the wreckage between it and the OMNI ship, now ID'd as the _Archangel_. The fact that the EA had somehow developed _transforming_ mobile suits was concerning, as they'd either have severe structural defects, would be maintenance nightmares, or it meant that they were already considering mass production of new classes of mobile suit once the final bugs were worked out by these testbeds.

That or they'd totally lost their minds because Amuro figured it'd take another half a decade at least to get any sort of transformation beyond basic mode shifting like some Romefeller Corporation MS such as the Aries or Pisces, which boasted primitive 'transformations' that were basically just minor alternate configurations for the suit.

Turning his suit's head to look at the Gundam-type next to him he opened a voice comm channel. "This is ensign Amuro Ray of the Earth Federation Space Force, who's piloting the machine next to me?"

A comms screen opened revealing a young man with violet eyes in civilian garb. ["Uh… Kira Yamato…"]

Amuro frowned. "A civilian…?" Kira looked away, sheepish. ["Yeah… I kinda ended up being stuck piloting this mobile suit..."]

"Sounds like a story for when we've docked…" Amuro said as he stared at the _Archangel_ , which had been eclipsed from the system's star by the _much_ larger EFSF carrier as the two of ships entered formation, Amuro assumed they were going to maneuver alongside eachother to dock once they were clear of the debris.

Then things got _worse_ for them.

["Amuro! Help the Strike grab that lifeboat over there and get your ass back to the _Roosevelt_ **NOW!** "] Chloe ordered as the ripples of the Vashti effect began to form on the edge of the system, numerous _Musais_ promptly jumped in, their IFF's identical to the ships of Char's squadron.

"Roger…" He maneuvered the Gundam over to the lifeboat that Kira was going for and carefully grabbed the mobile worker use handles on the opposite side from the strike as the two machines headed towards the yawning hangar of the _Archangel_ , Amuro releasing his end before bolting back to the _Roosevelt_ and landing in the hangar bay.

Their units secured, the two UW ships maneuvered to head out of the rapidly expanding debris field, aware that the ZAFT flotilla was shadowing their every move, and that it would be a matter of time before the Red Comet joined the show in proper form.

* * *

 **ZAS Minerva.** _ **June 7 SE 0279.**_

Rau Le Creuset frowned as he stood at Captain Gladys's side in the _Minerva's_ pilot briefing room, glancing over the assembled ZAFT redcoats, Athrun Zala, Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, Shinn Auska, Lunamaria Hawke, Nicol Almafi, Rusty Mackenzie, and Rey Za Burrel.

Additionally, Miguel Aiman, the "Magic Bullet of Dusk" was present along with the rest of the surviving greencoats from the complement of the _Minerva_ and the _Vesalius_ , the pilots from the escorting Frigates would receive separate debriefs.

Nodding to Talia and Captain Ades, Rau turned back to the assembled pilots.

"As the lot of you are no doubt aware, we have failed in our mission to capture or destroy _all_ of the Eternia Alliance's new experimental mobile suits, only capturing the Duel, Impulse, Buster, Aegis, one of the three Strike units, and the Blitz, nor did we manage to locate the Orb mobile suits either, although a transmission from the _Fermi_ stated it was engaging a Junk Guild _Marseilles III_ -class, indicating at least some of the Orb machines may be in the hands of third parties." Rau paused to let this sink in, watching Shinn resist the urge to slam his fist against something, which given the tension in the room would probably end up being Yzak's face, or vice-versa depending on which of them snapped first given both had butted heads repeatedly in the past over even trivial matters.

Oh, how he _detested_ mankind and its arrogance.

"The following units are now believed to be in the hands of the legged ship, Strike units one and two, the Gaia, the Calamity, and the Forbidden, in addition to eight to ten mass production type units codenamed as 'Long Dagger', despite this we enjoyed a numerical and qualitative superiority in mobile suits and pilots. Note I said enjoyed." Rau continued as a screen promptly showed the _Franklin D. Roosevelt_ looming large against the backdrop of the debris field, utterly dwarfing the nearby _Archangel_ , and therefore the _Minerva_ , by comparison.

"At H-Hour plus two a previously unknown class of Earth Federation warship jumped into the system and immediately deployed mobile suits, in the ensuing confusion we lost seven GINNs, eighteen Infestus, three CGUEs, and the frigate _Fermi_ in addition to the six suits already destroyed by the Alliance G-Weapons since we first engaged them in battle. Among this complement are multiple G-Weapon type multirole mobile suits, four experimental-class and ten production-class and numerous Guncannon units, including several of the new 'Heavy Arms' types, all of which bore unique color schemes, indicative of elite or ace level pilots. Two of these Federation X-class G-Weapons bore the colors of known Federation aces, the Gorgon of Hatte and the Grey Fox of New California. However the other two are certainly not to be underestimated either, the Grey one manuvered just as well as the two ace units and the fourth, the white one, is the machine that shot down five Zakus at Gryps." Rau paused again to let this sink in as well.

There was mild murmuring, while some of the Greens and Reds were arrogantly assuming 'natural' aces had nothing on them, Rusty, Athrun, Nicol, and Rey were more visibly concerned.

"Sir… Do we have a plan to deal with this new variable…?" Athrun finally said after some time spent thinking and discussing with Rusty.

"We do not…" Rau admitted, to the visible consternation of his pilots while Ades and Gladys remained even-faced. The white coat then smirked and continued. "But while _we_ don't have a plan…"

["I do."] A voice said as a holographic emitter sprang to life just as Rau timed it for in their brief conversation prior to the meeting, the full color hologram resolving in an instant into the smirking form of the Red Comet, to the shock of the entire room barring the white and black coat officers.

["Now due to security concerns I will be forced to detail this plan in person, therefore I will arrive aboard the _Minerva_ at 1500 local system time"] Char stated before saluting and cutting the transmission.

"You heard him, you have half an hour to relax before we begin debrief… Dismissed." Talia announced as the pilots saluted and began to file out of the room.

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.** _ **June 7 SE 0279.**_

Amuro grunted as Chloe grabbed him by the collar of his normal suit in the ready room and slammed him against a locker.

"Just what the hell were you thinking! If this had been a full-scale engagement and we didn't have the element of surprise some of us could've been killed covering your arrogant ass, especially if ZAFT had actually fought back instead of withdrawing!" She snarled.

"It worked didn't it!?" He responded, glaring back at her.

"Just because it worked doesn't mean it's not fucking stupid!" She growled back.

"The Gundam has far better armor and maneuvering ability than your Guncannons, it's also fast enough to outrun the GINNs on full burn. By distracting them I reduced the risk to our own forces." Amuro retorted as the crowd of pilots murmured around them.

"Just because you outwitted a bunch of arrogant ass coordinators who had no idea what you were capable of doesn't mean that stunt'll work against a competent and wary opponent! And that armor doesn't make you invincible either dumbass!" Chloe pointed out as she slapped aside Suzaku's hand when the latter tried to get her to back off of Amuro.

Any further argument was cut off by a sharp whistle, everyone turning to see a _very_ pissed off looking Sleggar Law walking up to the two as the crowd parted like the red sea before Moses.

"THE TWO OF YOU, MY OFFICE, LAST YEAR! OR SO HELP ME LORD I'LL SHOVE MY FEET UP BOTH YOUR ASSES AND WEAR YOU AS SHOES ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BRIG! AND THAT'LL BE SWEET, SWEET MERCY COMPARED TO THE COURT MARTIAL THAT'LL FOLLOW!" He bellowed as everyone but Chloe, Amuro, and the various squadron leaders scurried off like startled rodents, leaving the lead and fifth of the Black Knights standing there, their faces drained of all color.

The two at fault stood at attention, saluted shakily and _sprinted_ for Sleggar's office.

Sleggar slammed his fist against a locker and exhaled as he brought his temper back under control. "Fucking goddamn hormonal teenagers…"

"You can't fault Chloe at least for expecting co-operation without much in the way of her own leadership, or flipping out on Amuro like that, her homeworld is Enfer after all…" Ajax muttered.

"I can fault it because she should know better due to her training!" Slegger replied angrily.

Pierce glanced at the Grey Fox as Sleggar stormed out of the room. "Enfer? I've heard the name before, but what's so special about that planet?"

"Approximately three hundred years before the Realization War, a French sponsored colony expedition departed from Earth, within days all contact, including that via automated locator beacons, had been lost and the expedition assumed destroyed in an accident."

"Go on." Pierce said, gesturing with his hand for Ajax to continue.

"In actuality; all twelve of the colony ships and their combined cargo of about three hundred thousand people made it to a habitable planet… But the automated colony setup systems had failed because of a near miss with an active magnetar that was previously believed to be a normal neutron star, one that had never really surveyed by the Earth Dominion due to cutbacks in the exploration budget. As a result, the ships hard landed on a world highly inhospitable to human life, yet still within our tolerance range climate and atmosphere wise, the aggressive and dangerous flora and fauna soon took a major toll on the colonists, whom were spread out across no less than three continents, forcing the scattered colonization parties to focus on survival rather than getting the ship systems back online. Within three to four generations technical knowledge had degraded to the point it was impossible for the colonists to get the ships and their databanks operational again on their own, which in turn led them to only be able to use the few physical reading materials that were brought along, further degrading education and effectively splitting the remnants of what were supposed to be multiple modern townships and cities into scattered clusters of fuedo-tribal societies." He paused to take a breath.

"Okay, so where does that affect her behavior?" Sayla asked, wanting him to get to the point without an extensive university style lecture.

"Before the ships woke up the colonists from cryo, the onboard computers made rough estimates on the local flora and fauna and genetically reconfigured the reproductive organs of the fertile individuals to produce genetic material for a sub-species of human more adapted to such a harshly competitive and toxic ecosystem, or at least the one the computers thought they'd encounter, given the number of casualties it was worse than anticipated. The result of this and those three hundred years of harsh natural selection was _Homo Sapiens Infernalis_ , an identifiable sub-species of human boasting improved low-light vision, hearing, smell, strength, agility, endurance, a noticeable healing ability, and a much faster reproductive and initial growth cycle to better survive, if not quite thrive, on Enfer." He said, pausing again.

"Chloe's aggressive assertion of dominance back there was a survival behavior ingrained into her homeworld's societies over the centuries, where matriarchs and patriarchs would often be forced to assert physical dominance over impulsive or opportunistic subordinates, especially when not doing so could get the entire clan or tribe killed in a critical survival situation. Since she's the squadron lead of the Knights, she's effectively taken on a matriarchal role, and those instincts are probably clashing with her knowledge of what the military expects of an officer." Ajax continued, as if reading off from an encyclopedia.

"Sweet Mary Mother of Joseph…" Ryu mumbled as Sayla and Pierce whistled.

"Well that's a piece of work if I've ever heard one…" Job John added in.

"Either way, they're both screwed if Bright actually comes down from the bridge to have a chat with them…" Sayla mumbled.

"Bright's too busy, we've just docked with the _Archangel_ and they've sent a party over to help co-ordinate further actions, wouldn't be surprised if our enemies are doing the same." Ryu clarified.

"Wonderful…" One of them murmured.

"By the way Ajax... How _do_ you know this." Sayla asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I ended up Wikiwalking one day." He admitted.

"Really?" Ryu muttered before whacking him on the head lightly.

"What was that for!?"

"Going on a lecture again. You have a bad habit of doing that you know." Sayla replied snarkily.

* * *

Chloe and Amuro sweated nervously as Sleggar tapped the base of one of his models of old Anno Domini era naval fighter jets, an FJ-4 Fury to be precise if Amuro was reading the nameplate right. Both had calmly laid out their points in front of Sleggar a couple minutes ago.

"I can get the gist of what happened, and honestly, the both of you are at fault. Chloe for not maintaining better discipline and control of your unit, and Amuro for pulling that maverick shit after launching. I can let the physical assault slide for now because of stress and the societal conditioning of your home planet getting the better of your common sense, but that shit isn't to happen again, period." He turned to Amuro. "As for you Amuro, you could have made some attempt to notify your teammates beforehand. I'm not a disciplinarian like some officers but there must be consequences for this type of behavior, which means the two of you are now assigned to the help assemble the new GM units for your entire squadron. Am I understood?"

"Crystal sir." Both said in unison.

"Good, next time you two want to get physical over a disagreement, take it down to the fighting ring the marines have set up on their deck, it's technically against protocol and medical will bitch if you lose any teeth but one of the best ways I've found to let stress off is to beat the crap out of something or someone. Now report to Chief Omar for your assignments. Dismissed."

The two of them saluted and walked out the door as Sleggar picked up the model of the Fury, another man passing the two pilots as he walked in. "So this is where you ended up after Endymion?"

"Mu! You son of a bitch!" Sleggar stood up and the two ace pilots clapped eachother on the back before each taking a seat. "You're assigned to the _Archangel_?"

"Nah, I was assigned to escort a bunch of pilots to Heliopolis to pick up the G-Weapons. Only three of them got to their suits… Much of the _Archangel's_ intended command crew died as well." He sighed as Sleggar nodded in understanding.

"So, you're in the same metaphorical boat as us. Captain Cassius is recovering in the medical wing but I know the man, he's too proud to get cybernetics, so he'll be stuck in a desk job for the rest of his career if he's lucky, eight percent of the crew, which was understrength to begin with, is now made up of civilian volunteers and really only the marines had a full complement before they took some losses at Gryps…"

Mu whistled. "So who's the Captain? You?"

"Hell no, I'm not cut out for warship command, Cassius brought over some rising star Lieutenant named Bright Noa for his XO position instead of someone with a higher rank." Sleggar admitted with a shrug.

Mu chuckled. "That sounds about right. Now, about those G-Weapons you have, who's piloting them?"

"The Gundams? I've got Unit 03, the Grey one with the bluish highlights, Sayla's got Unit 00, the blue and white one, Ajax has Unit 01, the one that's in the 'real type' simulator colors he's fond of for some god forsaken reason, and Amuro, the brown-haired kid you just passed, has Unit 02, which has the obnoxious yet oddly fitting white, blue, red, and gold high vis test scheme. Hell, his _dad_ was one of the chief engineers for the entire V project and was on the design team for the 77 Guncannons and the 75 Guntanks."

Mu whistled. "On our end, we've got a trio of real oddball kids piloting the Gaia, Abyss and Chaos… Stella Loussier, Auel Nieder, and Sting Oakley respectively for each suit. As for Strike Unit 01, well we've got Kira Yamato, an Orb Citizen of all things, piloting that."

Sleggar raised an eyebrow. "The hell?"

"Yeah, kid's some kind of prodigy, smart enough to reprogram the shit operating system on the Strike while under fire, which immediately nearly got him killed because I kinda figured out he was a coordinator… While on the hangar deck… With a bunch of twitchy marines…" Mu chuckled, this time rather awkwardly as Sleggar facepalmed.

"Roy always did say you never knew when to keep your mouth shut…" He groused. "So, who's the acting Captain?"

"Some technical officer named Murrue Ramius, they wanted it to be me but again, are either of us cut out for warship command? Anyways, apparently she was assigned as an overseer with Morgenrote under the guise of being a college professor."

"Ramius… Wasn't her father the commanding officer of the Endymion fortress's defense wing…?" Sleggar asked, receiving an affirmative nod from Mu. "Now I remember… We owe the old man a drink in his honor for saving our asses from those Phantom Pain bastards and their Cyclops system…"

"Maybe when we're out of the frying pan and not in the fire… We'll have a toast to those who fell." Mu suggested as he leaned back in his chair.

Sleggar could only nod in agreement.

* * *

Bright walked into the lift with Murrue and glanced at her. "We'll need to keep this brief lest the enemy catches us while our ships are docked together as we exit the debris field."

"Agreed."

The two of them stepped onto the _Roosevelt's_ bridge as the Marine on guard duty saluted, the two of them responding in kind as they walked up to the holotank emitters.

"Marker, bring up system level tactical information." Bright ordered as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"Roger that sir!" Marker replied as he typed on his console from his and Oscar's perch well above the deck.

The immediate area around the two officers was suddenly filled with live feeds of just about everything going on in the system being fed from the CIC.

"Oscar, highlight the pact ships for us."

"On it sir!"

The ZAFT and Zeon squadrons were promptly highlighted in red, signifying enemy units.

"They're linking up…" Murrue pointed out after mentally estimating the course and speeds of the two flotillas.

"Indeed… After which they'll come bearing down on us, _Rosie_ is too powerful for them either to take on individually, even for that new ZAFT battle carrier. But together with those numbers and our understrength complement? That's when it becomes less clear…"

"My own crew is understaffed as well, the ten GAT-01Ds and Strike Unit 02 don't even have _pilots_ , leaving us with four GAT-X series mobile suits, eight Moebius units whose pilots I refuse to sacrifice meaninglessly, and Commander La Flaga's Moebius Zero. With about twelve support type Mistrals intended for non-combat use if we decide to send people to die worthlessly for some reason." Murrue admitted with a sigh. "It gets worse when you realize all the experimental tech, including Argothan derived transformation mechanisms, they crammed into these machines makes every single one of them but the Duel, Strike and Buster a maintenance nightmare."

Bright hummed contemplatively. "Right... Show local star systems with charted hyperlanes."

The hologram shifted to show the local stars with a names, co-ordinates, and other key information like known system contents and territorial control.

"What are you thinking…?" Murrue asked as she glanced at Bright.

"There's an EA forward asteroid base, Trident, in the Divinidad system isn't there?"

"Yes… But why there?"

"Because it nominally belongs to the Phantom Pain taskforce according to intel reports… Which means they'll possibly have a mobile suit complement there. I'm no fan of them but if we can get them or the Pact forces following us to cripple or outright eliminate eachother we're killing multiple birds with one stone."

Murrue frowned and exhaled softly. "That's probably the true, but to get there we'd have to skim Garma Zabi's AO, which is probably what they want us to do."

"Not if we head through the system around MGR-1979+2552… It's got two charted hyperlanes, one on either end." Bright murmured.

"An active Magnetar?! Are you certain?!"

"It's our only real chance, they'd have to be insane to follow us and it'd take them too long to get around it, giving us time to elude them, if we go the long way it gives Garma Zabi time to maneuver a supported battle line to block us at the jump point." Bright responded. "So long as we stay in the safe zone, even at near relativistic speeds we'll be fine."

Murrue nodded. "Get too close and it'll start depolarizing our beam and linear cannons… And that's before we get into the danger zone where it starts messing with the human body's electrons."

Bright nodded as well. "Well, once we're done transferring supplies, we'll undock and make a beeline for the old survey hyperroute. With luck we just might make it out of here alive."

Athrun and the rest of the ZAFT reds alongside the greens stood in the Minerva's hangar bay in their normal suits as a red MS-06S Zaku Command Type skidded to a halt in front of them, the hangar sealing up and repressurizing soon after.

The Reds glanced up as the Zaku's hatch opened and Char Aznable stepped out onto the edge of his cockpit, wearing his famous uniform and mask instead of his normal suit.

"That's the Red Comet…" Someone murmured.

"They say he sank five battleships singlehandedly in less than six minutes at Loum…"

"One of Zeon's top aces, he's supposedly got more MS and fighter kills to his name than Commander Le Creuset."

Rau took off his helmet and walked forwards as Char floated down to the floor, ignoring the idle chatter, the two men shaking hands.

"Commander Aznable."

"Commander Le Creuset."

"I assume my Zaku will be refueled while we talk personally?" Char asked as he glanced at his mobile suit, the Zaku's simplistic aesthetics rather unnerving and menacing looking when placed next to the more ornately designed ZAFT units.

"But of course, there's a reason we standardized fuel supplies throughout the pact." Rau responded as he kicked off the floor and headed up to a hatch as Char followed.

Athrun glanced up at the Red Comet as he passed overhead but remained even faced.

"Can you believe the nerve of that guy…" Yzak mumbled.

Athrun glanced back at the rest of the Le Creuset Team. "Can it Yzak, Char Aznable is a guest aboard this ship and he will be treated with the respect afforded that of an allied officer."

"Athrun is right, you lot better get it into your skulls in case the Black Tri Stars come aboard, because those guys have beaten _coordinators_ senseless in bar fights before." Rusty added, rubbing his side idly.

"How exactly do you know that…?" Lunamaria asked.

"I tried to defuse a fight once and ended up making it worse because I was just as drunk as the others, each one of them hits like a damn freight train…" Rusty admitted, neither Yzak or Shinn commenting as they imagined the three burly Tri-Stars pilots beating the living crap out of a trained special forces ZAFT redcoat and shuddered.

Even naturals with significant enough muscle mass could beat the crap out of coordinators after all.

The hangar chief floated over and yelled at them to move it because they were getting in the way, causing the flustered ZAFT pilots to scatter and join Rey, who'd had the sense to move after Rau and Char had left, on the boarding gantries.

* * *

 **EFS Roosevelt/EAS Archangel docking tunnel** **.**

Kira sighed as he adjusted the collar of his new Eternia Alliance cadet's uniform as he, Miri, Sai, Flay, Kuzzey, and Tolle headed over to pick up some repair tools taken on by the _Roosevelt_ at Gryps that were compatible with the _Archangel_ and her mobile suits for Chief Murdoc. As part of their first mission as 'foreign volunteers' in OMNI Enforcer, they were also to try and foster good relations with the crew of the Federation ship.

They stopped at the threshold of the _Roosevelt's_ docking collar and barring Flay, saluted the OOD. "Permission to come aboard."

The woman saluted back and nodded. "Granted, proceed to the checkpoint so that the Marines can verify your IDs.

Kira glanced back at his friends and Flay as they proceeded, seeing her practically hanging off Sai's arm before one of the Federation marines stopped them at the bulkhead checkpoint. "I'm sorry but only those with EA Military ID's are allowed past, acting Captain's orders given we have a sizable amount of refugees aboard." The man said, the vocoder on his helmet mildly distorting his speech.

Flay looked mildly irritated as Sai exhaled in exasperation. "I told you they wouldn't let you aboard, seeing the Alliance's MS was unavoidable but the Federation isn't just going to let you get close without authorization."

Flay pouted but didn't make a fuss, knowing that this was different compared to the relatively lax discipline on the _Archangel_.

"Ensign Badgiruel would love it here." Tolle joked idly, earning a couple chuckles from his friends.

"We'll be right back with those tools, just wait here okay Flay, and if we're attacked, head to whatever ship is closer immediately." Kira said as his ID was scanned.

"Alright, the five of you are cleared for entry make it quick and stay in the authorized areas or we'll be forced to detain you, that or shoot you for espionage depending on where we find you." The other marine stated bluntly as Kuzzey gulped visibly while the others frowned nervously.

"We'll keep that in mind..." Miriallia stated as they waited for the door.

The door opened and the five of them walked through, passing the marines guarding the other side, and following a pair of armed crewmen to the hangar deck, stepping through the threshold, Miriallia yelped as she realized that she wasn't wearing freefall use garments and stayed on the catwalk. "Just bring the tools over okay!?" She sputtered as she kept her uniform's skirt down with her hands.

Tolle and Sai shrugged as they followed Kira and Kuzzey past the lines of Guncannons.

["Standby for transfer of additional GM components from storage bay five."] The port side hangar's PA announced.

A Guncannon bearing EFMC markings and a dark navy blue and yellow color scheme marched past them as it headed towards a lift to the lower hangar decks.

["Clear elevator well six for transfer of Guntank 23 from ground vehicle bay four to maintenance deck two."]

Kira glanced over as they passed an octet of GMs undergoing construction, numerous crew members and manipulator cranes maneuvering parts for assembly.

"Hey Kira, those look like that 'Gundam' you told us about, which means they're probably the Federation counterpart to the Daggers!" Tolle said excitedly as they floated over to Chief Omar's station, where he was talking to Amuro and Chloe as they assembled a GM earmarked for Kallen, several of the machine's components already painted in Knight Four's distinctive Red and Orange scheme.

"Damnit Chloe let Amuro instruct you on what tools to use! He knows more about engineering than you do! And dammit Gideon the chest vents have to be painted Emerald! Don't give me that look it's what the pilot wants so just _do it_." Omar shouted as he spotted the Archangel volunteers landing next to him on the deck, their boots automatically gripping the deck plating to prevent them from bouncing off.

"You kids here for the tools Kojiro asked for?" Omar asked before shouting something at one of his subordinates about reactor linkages.

"Yes Chief."

"Alright, they're loaded over there next to the GM, Amuro'll show you exactly where, make sure you get out quickly enough." He turned away from them. "I don't care! Bring unit 00 up there ASAP… Well get the AI to drive it for you if Sayla is busy!" He shouted into a headset mic.

Kira nodded and floated over to the GM after kicking off the floor, Amuro glancing at him as he floated over, the two young men shaking hands. "So, this is what you look like without that normal suit on." Kira stated as Sai, Tolle, and Kuzzey floated behind him.

Amuro nodded. "Pretty much… But…" He glanced over at Omar and Chloe, the latter of whom was giving him a deadpan glare." I'm on punishment detail right now so I can't really talk… Maybe our Captains will let the crews mingle at some point later." He suggested.

Kira nodded in return, giving Amuro a smile in response. "Sounds like an idea, I'll bring it up to Lieutenant Ramius next time I see her, now about those tools…"

"They're down there." Amuro stated plainly as he pointed out the specific boxes with the tool sets.

"Thanks. We'll be taking these then I guess."

Amuro nodded as Kira and his friends picked up the tools before glancing back at them. "See ya later I guess, hopefully it won't be in combat next time."

Kira nodded as he glanced back. "Same…" He sighed and floated back up to where Miri was waiting, the five of them heading back to the _Archangel_ after meeting up with the waiting Flay at the forward docking port airlock of the _Roosevelt_.

Amuro shrugged and returned to his work on the GM, glancing briefly at Chloe as Ryu floated over, the portly man of Brazilian descent glancing up at the mobile suit they were assembling. "You'll like the new GMs given what I've heard about them, very versatile and mobile design."

Chloe shrugged as she closed a panel after checking some wiring and thruster mechanics. "I guess. The Guncannons are fire support machines and it's been kind of aggravating when Amuro is right about us being liabilities to him..."

"Supposedly it boasts better acceleration than Amuro's Gundam actually, mostly due to the baseline model's lower mass." Ryu stated, giving them a wink as he continued to inspect the suit.

Knight lead smirked as she exchanged a glance with Amuro, the latter sighing as he tested an artificial muscle section in the knee joint to ensure it was working properly, over the next few minutes he kept glancing back at her, seeing that same shit-eating grin on her face as she waited for an opening.

"Don't say it…" Amuro grumbled as Ryu floated off to inspect the next GM undergoing assembly.

"I was just-" Chloe began before the alarms began to blare.

["Attention all hands, level one battle stations, pact warships have engaged combat speed and are launching mobile suits, all pilots report to your mobile suits and fighters and proceed to your assigned launch decks."] The hanger PA announced as Amuro and Chloe glanced at eachother, eyes wide.

"Well… At least we're wearing our normal suits…" Amuro mumbled as the two kicked off from the GM and headed towards their assigned MS, Chloe using a hapless crewman as a maneuvering point to make her way to her pink and gold Guncannon unit while Amuro entered Gundam 02 and began an emergency startup.

Ammo was rapidly loaded onto the Guncannon as manipulator arms handed it a beam rifle and shield, the latter of which locked into an articulated point on the left arm while a handle slid into the Guncannon's free hand before it stomped forwards as the joints unlocked.

Both machines joined the small flood of MS heading up to the port lower launch deck, waiting in line for their turn at elevators.

* * *

 _ **Heliopolis Alpha local 'airspace.'**_

Kira grimaced as the Strike joined the Gaia, Abyss and Chaos, in addition to Commander La Flaga's Mobeius Zero, and a mixed bag of Guncannons, Saberfish and GMs from the _Roosevelt_ in picket formation between the two UW ships and their adversaries. The standard Moebius units remained in formation around Mu having been setup as drone fighters as the Commander was unwilling to throw away lives whilst Kira worked on fixing the bugs in the Long Dagger OS.

"All we have to do is cover the ships until the Orb battlegroup that just entered the system arrives and makes the Pact back down, so that means defensive action only…" He mused, watching the enemy mobile suits approach, noting the Duel, Buster, Blitz, and the other Strike had joined the Aegis and Impulse, and all of them were surrounded by Zakus, GINNS, a handful of CGUEs, and fighters.

Three IFFs popped up, reading RX-78-2 Gundam, and were assigned the associated unit numbers by the _Archangel's_ CIC, causing Kira to sigh in relief.

"Makes this fight more even…" He mused as he checked the Strike's reactor drain rate, phase shift armor was hardly an efficient system, even though the electrical adjustments to the armor's molecular structure increased durability to levels normally only obtained by purified Gundanium, a luna titanium majority composite named after Doctor Tomino's Gundam theory, it came at the cost of high power consumption under fire, meaning that the system would automatically shut down after a certain number of consecutive hits to avoid causing undue harm by overstressing the reactor, this was in addition to the hefty power drain it had while even idly active, meaning he could get at max maybe half an hour out of the system, which wasn't that bad considering most combat engagements were exceedingly fast paced unless it was a major set-piece battle.

["All forces, enemy units incoming, about twenty Zakus, sixteen GINNs, three standard CGUEs, two modified CGUEs, forty Dopps, thirty Infestus and… Confirmed IDs as Duel, Buster, Blitz, Strike 02, Impulse, and Aegis… Hold on, confirming one modified Zaku Command type moving at three times the velocity of the others… It's... It's the Red Comet!"] Miriallia announced over the EA channel, Kira beginning to shake slightly, Athrun might hold back but the Red Comet was doubtlessly a cut above him and the other pilots of the stolen G-Weapons regardless.

"Right… Kira Yamato, Strike, engaging enemy units!" He hit the thrusters of the Aile equipped Strike Gundam and rushed to cut off the stolen G-Weapons alongside the Gaia, Chaos, and Abyss while the others focused on the mass production MS.

Clashing sabers with the Aegis, Kira glanced off to the side to see the other Alliance G-Weapons in a glorified feeding frenzy as they went after the Impulse and Strike-02, leaving him to deal with the Duel, Buster, Blitz _and_ the Aegis.

"Gee thanks guys… Something is seriously messed up with those other kids that're piloting those machines…" He mumbled before a volley of beam rifle shots from the Duel snapped him back to reality as the Buster and Blitz slipped past.

["Kira! Just power down that mobile suit's weapons and come with us!"] Athrun demanded over a point to point laser channel as he fired a volley of missiles at the Strike, which the latter MS intercepted with its CIWS vulcans and point lasers.

"I can't exactly do that Athrun… There's people I have to protect on that ship!" The Aile equipped Strike charged forwards.

["Damnit Kira you're a coordinator! We shouldn't be fighting eachother!"] Athrun growled as the Aegis dodged Kira's attack with basic AMBAC maneuvering, Kira turning the Strike and firing at the Aegis once he'd passed the other machine, which blocked the beams with its shield.

"Don't make this about that Athrun, what would you do in my place?!" Kira demanded as the Aegis stopped briefly before rocketing forwards again without an answer.

The Aegis sideslipped around the Strike and attempted to cleave through the Aile pack, Kira blocking the attack with the shield before swiping at the Duel as it closed in.

" _Not gonna be easy… They're both far better trained than I am, my only advantage is that their OS's aren't fully patched yet given how jerky their movements are…"_ Kira thought as he dodged another strike from the Aegis by backing off, the suit's AMBAC system and foot thrusters helping correct the Strike's attitude before he boosted towards Athrun again, continuing their isolated clash, keeping a wary eye on the Duel's movements as it fired away with its beam rifle.

* * *

"Clear shot straight to the legged ship and the Trojan Horse… Not gonna jinx it though…" Dearka mumbled as he and Nicol headed for the _Archangel_ and _Roosevelt_ , the two carriers spewing up a veritable wall of flak, with the _Midway_ -class lending her light and medium beam cannons to the barrage as well, something that made Dearka pretty nervous given the Buster was still having response time issues. "Nicol! Go for the legged ship's bridge, I'll distract this damn horse!"

["Roger Dearka."] The soft-spoken scion of the Amalfi family responded before heading straight into the teeth of the _Archangel's_ Igelstellung 75mm rotary CIWS and Stachelschweinstellung 127mm automatic linear flak guns, dodging as much fire as possible to avoid stressing the energy load of his suit before blowing away two of the dorsal CIWS mounts with the rocket harpoons mounted on the Blitz's shield.

Dearka smirked and combined the Buster's main weapons into the hyper-impulse assault gun formation, taking aim at _Rosie's_ bridge tower. "Just gotta sync fire control to the barrier field refresh… And then shoot when it's weakest… With luck the first shot'll punch through or disrupt the refresh cycle for the followup" Before he could pull the trigger after the sync confirmed, an alarm tone blared in his helmet, causing Dearka and thus the Buster to look down in response to the indicated direction of the hostile as a magenta beam shot past the Buster's torso. "OH SHIT!" He swore loudly as he saw the RX-78-2/02 racing up towards him with four uniquely colored Guncannons in tow, all five MS firing at him with their beam rifles.

The Buster danced around their shots as best Dearka could make it, while he was certainly not a novice, the Buster wasn't optimized for mid-close-range fights, and its OS was still buggy as the arms jerked suddenly, throwing off his counter attack shot and sending it off into deep space. As the Guncannons and Gundam flashed past him and began to encircle him in a crossfire the Buster narrowly dodged another salvo of beam rifle shots from all five machines, Dearka decided to swallow his pride, he glanced at where Yzak was backing up Athrun and opened a channel. "Hey Yzak, Athrun! I've found the fourth Feddie G-Weapon and he's got backup! Would one of you two quit fucking around with the Strike and come bail me out of this before they pin me down and go after Nicol too!?"

["Goddamnit Dearka!"] Yzak groused as the Duel broke off and raced towards the Buster, firing shots down at the Guncannons and forcing them to scatter.

* * *

Mu glanced around as he looked for Rau Le Crueset's mobile suit, having sensed the familiar pressure of the ZAFT ace when he'd launched. Spotting the Silver CGUE as it tore the limb off a Guncannon that had gotten too close and simultaneously riddled a GM's leg with holes from its shield vulcan, forcing it to withdraw back to the _Roosevelt_ , Mu began his attack run.

"Gotta time this right…" Mu muttered to himself as he dispersed the Zero's gunpods.

["Is that you again Mu you annoying _Gnat_!"] Rau asked as he holed the Guncannon through the torso with his rifle before the CGUE's monoeye tracked over to the Moebius Zero, the ZAFT machine kicking the artillery MS away and letting it join the debris field.

"Damnit!" Mu dodged as Rau opened fire on him whilst the drone Moebius units engaged, the Silver Phantom of Yggdrasil dodging every strike Mu made against him as he swatted down the drones and dodged fire from the gunpods, striking one of them down as well.

["Absolutely pathetic Mu La Flaga! Did you honestly think that I wouldn't be prepared for such parlor tricks?"] Rau taunted before a beam rifle shot carved through the left arm and shield of the CGUE.

["Were you prepared for me!?"] Sleggar roared as his Gundam dove into the fray and forced Rau to back off.

["Sleggar Law! To see the Falcon of Loum here as well! Either I'm _blessed_ in that I can destroy you both in one fell swoop or lady luck truly _hates_ me!"] Rau retorted as he dodged the now combined fire from the two UW aces, slowly drawing them away from the rest of his forces.

* * *

Sayla sliced a Dopp in half and stopped briefly as she felt a tingling sensation in the back of her mind. "Casval…" She turned and blocked a slash from Char's heathawk with her beam saber, her usual calm breaking down as old memories rushed forth, and the sensations confirmed that the Red Comet was indeed her brother like she'd long suspected.

["Artesia… So, it is you after all…"] Char murmured over a direct laser-line comm channel.

It seemed that he too, had suspicions that she was the Gorgon of Hatte.

Gundam Unit 00 forced him back as the Blue and White machine's red targeting sensor 'eyes' gleamed dangerously. "Casval why are you serving the Zabis! I thought you'd join the Federation to destroy them!"

["I could ask the same for you being in the Federation Military Artesia! What happened to the gentle girl who wanted to be a Doctor and hated war!"] Char retorted as he clashed his machine's weapon with hers again, both breaking apart and firing a salvo of missiles at eachother.

"That girl died when Zeon attacked New Texas and killed what was left of the Mass family…" Sayla stated after a moment, beating back a mental probe from her brother in an unwelcome and intrusive attempt to figure out her reasons for joining the EFSF and managing to get a glimpse inside his own mind before slamming her mental barriers shut in response to what she'd seen.

Now trembling as she gripped the control sticks of her machine, she glared at the Zaku in front of her, the Gundam's targeting optic protection shutters narrowing as the suit's AI forced the machine to mimic her facial expression, making it look like the suit itself was leering at the Red Comet.

["Artesia…"] Char's eyes widened behind his mask as he realized what memories his sister had stumbled across in the moment their minds touched before her mental barriers slammed shut.

"BASTARD! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO KILLED THEM CASVAL! THE MASS'S WERE FRIENDS OF OUR FATHER! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO THEM!? HOW!" Sayla roared as she closed the line, with tears in her eyes she charged her Gundam towards her brother's Zaku repeatedly, forcing him to break off every time, the sheer savagery of her strikes catching the Red Comet off guard as he was forced to side-strafe several times to dodge the wild swings of her beam saber.

With Char unable to bring himself to seriously fight his angered and distraught sister and Sayla too incoherent to seriously threaten the life of her brother, neither were able to hold the definitive advantage in either ranged or close quarters combat, lending their fight to a stalemate as the Red and Blue mobile suits dueled, almost serenely isolated from the larger battle.

* * *

Amuro glanced briefly over to where Sayla and Char were fighting before turning his attention to the Duel Gundam, as far as he could tell it was the G-Project's counterpart to the RX-78, a well-balanced no-frills all-rounder, and likely the basis for the other machines.

"Alright, let's see what you're made of…" Amuro kicked the left-side thrusters up and both Gundams circled around the other, sizing eachother up like two old-west gunmen or a pair of opposing samurai. Amuro noticing his opponent's moves weren't all that smooth.

 _"His OS is still incomplete... They must have panic sortied the G-Weapons because of the_ Roosevelt's _arrival... I can use that!"_ He realized.

* * *

It was the Duel that made the first move, drawing a beam saber and clashing blades with Amuro as the two darted back from eachother before clashing again, their movements blurred to the human eye as Yzak's eyes widened.

" _No fucking way, this guy's a natural, how the hell is he keeping up with me!?"_ The scion of the Joule family thought as Gundam-02 feinted towards him before spinning his mobile suit with a leg swipe and kicking the Duel away.

Grunting, Yzak backed off as Nicol broke off from his run on the legged ship to fire a volley of beam pistol shots at the Gundam which Amuro blocked with the shield.

["Yzak! Are you alright?"] His teammate asked, concern clearly audible in his tone.

"I'm fine… What about the legged ship?"

["The Gaia forced me away after using Shinn as a platform to increase its velocity… We need to fall back, an Orb taskforce just showed up and they're demanding we vacate their territorial space immediately, they're broadcasting on all channels."]

Turning the Duel's head to scan the battleground, Yzak had noted it was eerily still, Mobile suits backing off from eachother and fighters breaking away from their dogfights, switching onto the all comms channel he frowned as a repeated transmission came through.

["Repeat, we demand all hostilities cease and both United Worlds and Pact forces leave our territorial space _immediately_ , any vessel that refuses will be treated as _hostile_ and sunk."]

"Tch… Right, we should've vacated this system long before their response fleet showed up."

Opening an audio channel to Gundam 02, Yzak narrowed his eyes. "Don't think this means we're finished you bastard! You'll rue the day you crossed Yzak Joule yet!" Closing the line, he turned and went full burn back to the _Minerva_.

["Did he seriously just… Yzak you dumbass!"] Dearka groaned as the Buster and Blitz followed the Duel back to the _Minerva_.

* * *

Amuro for his part could only blink as Chloe's Guncannon drifted closer to him, the entire team having coordinated their plan of action this time instead of Amuro just going ahead and doing his own thing.

A step in the right direction he supposed.

["What was that about…?"]

"I think I just made a rival or something…"

["With the son of one of the Zodiac Alliance's radical faction councilors no less…"] Naoto stated as the Knights headed back to _Rosie's_ port launch/recovery deck.

"Oh wonderful…" Amuro muttered as the Gundam touched down and magnetized to the floor, marching to an available berth.

["Well at least we're _acting_ like a team now…"] Suzaku pointed out.

["Thank the lord for small miracles…"] Kallen mumbled as their suits docked and began to power down.

* * *

Rau's CGUE flared its monoeye before turning and racing back towards the Pact flotilla, joined shortly by Char's Zaku as Sleggar and Mu flew over to Sayla's Gundam. ["We'll be settling this another time Mu."] The ZAFT ace taunted one final time as he withdrew.

"Sayla! Report!"

There was a moment before she opened a comm channel to answer Sleggar's query. ["I'm fine… Let's head back…"]

Sleggar sighed before having his suit give Mu a salute and the pair of Gundams headed back to the _Roosevelt_.

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

Bright frowned as the Orb Second Rapid Response fleet loomed large on the main screen, this was the kind of overwhelming firepower, elite level military training, and technological acuity that made the Orb Union an unattractive target unlike Sanc, Northernbell or Riah.

"Tactical reports eight _Izumo_ -class battlecruisers, four _Kii_ -class fast battleships, two _Zuihou_ -class light carriers, four _Taiyou_ -class escort carriers, four _Unryuu_ -class medium fleet carriers, twelve _Suzuya_ -class strike cruisers, sixteen _Hiburi_ -class frigates, and twenty _Shinonome_ -class destroyers. Backed by eight _Taigei_ -class high speed support and replenishment vessels." Oscar drawled off as Shute engaged in a conversation with the commander of the Orb taskforce, explaining their situation.

"Confirm nav computer link to the _Archangel_."

"Nav computer link confirmed!" Marker replied. "We're ready to go at any time."

"Sir! The Orb fleet says we have an hour to vacate the system before they begin firing on us!" Shute reported, Bright assumed they were being generous.

"Inform them that we'll be out of the system in less than a sixth of that." Bright ordered as he narrowed his eyes at the lights of the pact ships scurrying away.

"Yes sir!"

"Are all of ours recovered?" Bright asked as he picked up the handset and engaged a ship to ship line with the _Archangel's_ bridge.

"Confirmed sir!" Oscar reported as he swept through several pages of reports.

"Lieutenant Ramius is your ship synced with ours?"

There was a brief pause as Murrue checked. ["Confirmed."]

"Roger, tell your crew to brace for immediate jump, we're getting out of here!"

["Roger."]

Bright put down the handset as he mentally counted down, the _Archangel_ and _Roosevelt_ accelerating to relativistic speeds and jumping mere moments later.

* * *

Hayato grunted as he felt the ship lurch suddenly before stabilizing as he finished up his latest simulator course, frowning as he stepped out of the Guncannon sim.

"What's going on?"

The Staff Sergeant that was his arbitrary DI glanced at him. "We've just jumped again."

Hayato sighed and glanced at the decks above him before releasing his clenched fists.

" _Amuro… I'll show you that you're not the only one of us who can fight…"_ He mused as he thought of how absurdly lucky the other teen was to be able to pilot a machine of such strength.

"Alright now onto your next course maggot, I know for a damn fact you're envious of Unit 02's pilot so get your ass in gear unless you want to be shining the bottom of his Mobile Suit's footpads for the rest of your career!" The Staff Sergeant shouted as Hayato stood straight and began his latest set of laps through the vehicle bays.

" _I'll show Amuro… Kai… Those Zeek bastards… I'll show them all what I'm capable of!"_ The young man thought as he ran past a line of M61 Tanks.

* * *

Chloe yawned as she relaxed in the pilot's rec room, Amuro snoozing away in the chair next to her after Chief Omar released them to get some rest.

Everyone was exhausted, two high tension combat sorties, no matter how brief, within a couple hours of each other was draining due to the adrenaline rush, and while the ship's crew was mostly alert the pilots were beginning to get worn down due to lack of sleep.

Sleggar frowned as he and Ajax watched them before glancing at his subordinate out of the corner of his eye. "How's Sayla doing…" A statement, not a question.

"She's… Calming down… I don't know what she saw inside the Red Comet's head, but it's got her _extremely_ worked up…" Ajax sighed as he scratched the back of his head.

"Damnit…" Sleggar himself yawned as he sat back. "We've been worked up too much. Everyone's so tense that when we actually _do_ sortie it exhausts us twice as quickly…"

"Having _two_ high profile pact aces after our asses tends to do that." Ajax pointed out dryly as Chloe finally nodded off on the far side of the room and flopped onto Amuro's lap unintentionally.

"Yeah… Especially for those kids… I'm still not sure about all this hokey psionic stuff or whatever but if Sayla says it's real then I'll go along with it until I've got definite proof otherwise." Sleggar stated as another group of pilots filed into the room.

"On the bright side, we're going to have to continue transferring supplies to the _Archangel_ once we revert, thankfully the system has a couple gas giants we can hide in the L2 points of while we do that and evaluate the damage we've taken…"

Sleggar shrugged idly as another of the Knights, Kallen, dropped as well.

Naoto simply sighed as he and Suzaku watched the rest sleep.

"So how long do you think we'll get to rest…?" Naoto asked.

"A day or two at best…"

"That also gives them plenty of time to get ahead of us…"

"Or contact Garma Zabi given his AO is in our path like everyone else is pointing out…" Suzaku noted.

Neither of them had anything much to say afterwards.

* * *

 **ZAS Minerva.**

Shinn watched as the Impulse's components were docked into the _Minerva's_ primary fighter loading bay, which was intended for multiple space torpedo boat size vessels at max.

"Switching the Striker Mod 2 packs is going to be a pain in the ass…" He mumbled as he glanced at the systems setup, which would require a major refit to the ship's internals to work as desired, hence why they were resorting to using several modified drone units as delivery vehicles launched from the same catapult.

He frowned as he remembered how the three machines had fought him and Rusty to a standstill while Luna's and Rey's CGUEs were kept at bay by the new Federation mass production units. Annoying given their focus on him, although the Impulse and Blitz had some pretty gamechanging tech admittedly, the Blitz's Mirage Colloid stealth system, which rendered it invisible to the visual spectrum and most military and civilian sensor types. And the Impulse's core block system and the more notable barrier projectors mounted in the shield, admittedly they were only rated for anti-mobile suit armaments and other lighter weapons.

They were just an annoyance however...

That Orb battlegroup however… At the very edge of Orb's territorial space they had better response time than the forces guarding the core colonies did six years ago…

And it pissed him off.

Shinn clenched a fist and slammed it against the wall.

"Uzumi Atha you damn idealistic weak-willed idiot…" Shinn mumbled to himself as he headed back to his quarters.

Lunamaria and Rey watched him with concern.

"So what's Shinn's deal with Orb… I know he's a migrant from there but…"

Rey looked at her. "His family was killed in the Elysium 'incident', Blue Cosmos kill teams entered the colony and while they were eventually stopped by the security forces but not after causing severe casualties among the civilian population… As a second-generation coordinator, Shinn's grandparents, whom he was visiting at the time, were targeted as race-traitors by those psychopaths… Both his parents and grandparents were killed by a small team of Blue Cosmos fighters and his sister crippled before a SWAT team backed by the garrison troops cut their attackers down…" He explained.

Luna's eyes widened as she glanced back at Shinn. "But how does that explain his deal with Uzumi Atha…?"

"Because, the colony was run by the Seiran family… There's no way many of those men and women would have gotten aboard without the say so of them or one of the subordinates, _all_ of them were on Orb's no-entry list and should've been shot on sight by security when they tried to enter. Shinn believes if Lord Atha had taken a harder stance on security and reigning in the nobility rather than preaching peace during that period, his family wouldn't have died."

"Oh…" Luna murmured as Rey nodded.

"He couldn't stay in Orb any longer, and he took his sister and moved to the Zodiac Alliance soon after."

Luna didn't say anymore, sighing and heading back to her quarters while Rey wondered if that infodump had been too much for her to handle.

* * *

 **PZS Falmel.** _ **June 7 SE 0279.**_

Char laid in bed, frowning as he mentally went through his encounter with his sister, of all the things that could've happened, what did happen was the most soul shattering experience he'd had in a long time.

His sister's rage and hatred were so palpable it continued to unnerve him.

"Artesia…" He murmured as he rolled onto his side and continued attempting to sleep.

But the guilt of his part of the attack on New Texas wouldn't go away… And Artesia hadn't seen the whole story… How he and Lino were effectively forced to do wipe out much of the Mass family personally to throw off the Zabi's secret police.

It still sickened him.

Slipping out of bed, Char walked to the bathroom to take a shower.

If he couldn't sleep, he might as well do something productive.

* * *

 **EAS Archangel.** _ **June 7 SE 0279.**_

Murrue sighed as the _Archangel_ continued its trip through subspace, it would be another five hours before they reached the Magnetar given the speeds of both ships, so there was plenty of time to catch up on rest before they had to inspect the damage to their ship.

Getting up from her chair, she stretched and began to head for the door. "Natarle, you have the bridge."

"Aye aye Ma'am…" The ship's doctrinal CIC officer responded before returning to her tasks.

Stepping out into the hallway, Murrue noticed two individuals in labcoats waiting pensively for her.

"May I assist you…?"

"Lieutenant Ramius… There is an urgent matter we need to discuss regarding our request to use this ship's medical synthesizers…" The first man said, glancing back at his compatriot whom had a nervous and guilty look on their face.

"Why? Surely you can't be serious about using our limited chemical stocks for personal use…?"

"It's not for us, it's for the pilots of Gaia, Abyss, and Chaos…"

"I still don't understand, they seem healthy if not a little wild and undisciplined…" Murrue responded.

Both men pensively looked at eachother before the second one spoke up. "That's because they're extended Ma'am…"

"Andsworth!"

"We can hardly keep this a secret, you know I was roped into this because of my biological expertise, that's why they sent you and me, because we're as expendable to bastards running the program as those children are since we feel guilty about what we did!" He responded heatedly.

"Extended… I don't understand."

"They're classified as biological CPUs, super soldiers meant to rival coordinators and evolved humans like Enferians in all aspects of combat."

Murrue's eyes widened in shock. "But bio-augmentation is legally limited only to specific special forces units!"

"And that's the issue, the Alliance stonewalled the treaty enough to give them a legal grey area to enable this, by listing Phantom Pain as one of these special forces units and assigning every single extended to them… So there's _technically_ nothing illegal about these children…" Andsworth replied, drained.

"More to the point, if they don't get the medical treatments they require regularly… They _will_ die." The other man stated grimly.

Murrue tensed up before sighing, as much as she hated this, there were both moral and practical concerns driving her decision, she didn't wish for these children to die, some part of her hoping that perhaps another group could save them from this hell her nation had put them in, the other was that they needed every pilot they could get…

"Very well then, you have access to the ship's manufacturing systems and synthesizers for whatever you need to keep them alive…"

Andsworth sighed. "Thank you, ma'am…"

Murrue nodded as she began walked back to her quarters, passing Mu on the way there.

"What was that about…?" He asked.

She shook her head. "I'll tell you later."

Mu shrugged as he headed back to his office.

* * *

 **EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.**

Bright stepped into the recovery ward and walked to Captain Cassius's bedside.

"Captain…"

The older man opened his eyes and glanced over at Bright. "You've done an outstanding job according to Ryu…"

Bright allowed a smile to cross his face. "Thank you, Captain…"

"That may be my rank, but you're this ship's commanding officer now Bright… Did I just contradict myself for no reason…? Oh, bother it must be the medication they have me on…"

Bright shook his head, a genuine smile on his face for the first time since this entire mess began. "Captain, if you need anything, just notify KOSMOS and she'll inform the medical staff."

Cassius nodded as Bright saluted before turning and walking out of the room. "He'll be a fine command officer one day… You always had an eye for finding talented people Johann…" Cassius chuckled to himself.

* * *

Stepping out into the hallway, Bright passed a few refugees, whom being watched by a pair of marines. In all the commotion it was easy to forget that they had many civilians onboard due to the circumstances behind their current state of affairs.

"Corporal."

"Sir!" The ranking enlistedman and the PFC next to him saluted.

"What's the status on finding quarters for the refugees?" Bright asked, glancing over at a child that retreated behind their mother's legs.

"We're almost done setting things up, we've got the MP detachment running law enforcement patrols to prevent petty crime and in the worst cases, rape or murder, power suits tend to make civvies think twice about doing shit anyways sir." The man replied.

Bright nodded, it wasn't favorable but a murder or rape on the ship would immediately cause a spike in tensions, _especially_ if it involved the crew in any way. "Right, keep the vast bulk of the crew away from those areas and make sure the civilians stay _out_ of all areas designated as off limits to them."

The man nodded. "Will that be all sir?"

Bright nodded back. "That'll be all for now Corporal." He entered a lift and sighed as the doors shut. "Command quarters level."

The lift chimed and began to ascend as bright thought of the situation he was currently in.

"A shame more habitable planets don't exist to let us give the crew decent shore leave…" He mused, although the number of habitable worlds was indeed far above AD era expectations, nearly eight hundred planets and moons over the Orion arm, something that Bright found rather suspicious, there was no way that such a sizeable number of planets within tolerable limits for humanity was a coincidence, something many people before him had undoubtedly thought. And the existence of the Argotha had made it clear that it was very possible that humanity wasn't the first in the region to climb to spatial dominance…

"Were the planets we colonized the leftovers of some old Empire that shared similar biology to us…? Or did someone purposely leave these worlds here in anticipation of humanity ascending to the stars…"

Of course, there would be no answers to this question, not now or perhaps ever.

"What're the casualties…" Bright asked.

" **Three Guncannons and one GM lost sir, according to Sleggar one of them had the misfortune of running into Le Creuset."** The same artificial female voice he'd conferred with several times stated.

Bright sighed, four more next of kin notes he'd have to sign off on, and he knew they wouldn't be the last. "Too many people have already died in this war…" They'd gotten lucky that their prior battle with the Red Comet's forced had no casualties.

That luck clearly wasn't holding out.

* * *

Amuro blinked as he floated weightlessly through the hangar deck of an _Aetos_ -class carrier.

" _Odd… I've never been on one of these ships before… And this is way too vivid and consistent to be a dream…"_

A man in a federation normal suit gave a thumbs up to Amuro as 'he' looked over at them.

"Your fighter's refueled and ready to go Knight 5."

"Roger."

" _That was Chloe's voice… So, she'd been a fighter pilot before transferring to the mobile suit corps… Explains why she had a callsign."_

As Chloe strapped herself into the cockpit of a Saberfish and went through a contracted version of the pre-flight checks, Amuro frowned mentally. _"Is this why she was so tense regarding that statement Suzaku made about the previous iteration being 'almost wiped out.'"_

Her fighter taxied to an elevator and was raised to the flight deck, the flashes of weapons fire and explosions visible in the distance as the battle of Loum raged in the background.

["Hey Five, you think we'll nail ourselves any Zakus this time?"] Someone Amuro didn't recognize asked.

"Hopefully Six." Chloe responded as an alarm tone blared in her fighter and AA fire and missiles from the light carrier and her escorts blazed into the void.

["INCOMING ENEMY MOBILE SUITS, TWO ZAKUS! ALL DEFENSE FIGHTERS GO TO EMERGENCY LAUNCH STATUS"] Someone shouted into the comms, likely the ship's Star Boss or Tactical Controller.

Saberfish began to lift off the flight deck as their underside verniers flared, engines coming to life as they tried to get voidborne in time to counter the attack as a blue and green high mobility Zaku bore down on them, backed by a Blue and Gold standard model command unit.

Both machines tore into the carrier force, maneuvering around the barrier fields faster than they could be redirected to counter and tearing into the fighters and mobile pods protecting the flotilla.

Chloe snarled as she charged towards one of the Zakus, the high mobility type, the machine eyeing her and deftly dodging her missile salvo, intercepting or distracting the incoming munitions, with the fighter's 25mm cannon shells bouncing off its shield, the pilot decided they'd had enough of the annoyance and backhanded her fighter away as it buzzed past them, Chloe's helmet smashed into the control console, the visor shattering, alarm tones blared, there was blood.

And everything went dark.

* * *

Amuro heard heavy breathing as Chloe's eyes opened and fuzziness was replaced by the inside of a ship's medbay.

There was a haze of words, mostly medical terms and the such, but one thing made it through the din.

"She's the only survivor of Light Carrier Group 27…"

Followed by another voice, one that certainly _wasn't_ from the memory.

" _How the FUCK are you in_ my _head."_

And then all hell broke loose.

* * *

Amuro slammed into the floor as Chloe straddled him, hands on his chest and her face red with fury.

"What. Did. You. See." She snarled as Kallen woke up and fell off her chair.

Suzaku and Naoto were too stunned to do anything as Kallen got up and wrenched her squadron leader off Amuro.

"What the fuck are you doing Chloe!" Kallen hissed, trying to avoid making a scene.

The Enferian pilot snarled, her golden eyes narrowing as she lowered her fists. "I'm going to go talk to Commander Mass because she _has_ to know what's going on with the lot of us, stuff like having another person looking through your head isn't _normal_." She stated before storming out of the rec room, dragging Amuro along with her.

"Okay… What the hell is that about…" Kallen asked.

"You'll find out soon enough… This is a matter for the two of them… And Commander Mass to discuss… I suggest you three go after them before you lose track." Sleggar stated as he loomed over them.

The other three members of the Black Knights glanced at eachother before shrugging and following their Lead and Fifth.

* * *

Sayla Mass stood up and rubbed her eyes.

"No sense crying over it anymore… For all I know the Zabis probably had a gun to his head... Doesn't mean I can forgive him for what he's done..."

Sensing something, she glanced over at the door to her room as it slid open revealing Chloe Chaffee standing there, fury on her face Amuro and the rest of the Knights in tow.

"Tell us everything you know about whatever is happening to us… _Now._ "

Sayla chuckled darkly, the glow of subspace casting an eerie light into the otherwise dark room from the window as the door slammed shut behind Kallen, the girl yelping in surprise. "Alright… Each of you take a seat… Because I guess I'm going to have to explain Zeon Deikum's newtype theory to all of you…"

* * *

 **PZS Falmel.**

["So the Red Comet and the Silver Phantom have need of my aid…"] Garma Zabi, the youngest of Degwin Sodo Zabi's children stated as a hastily cleaned up Char Aznable clasped his hands behind his back, for t.

"While Grand Admiral Dozle is currently massing a fleet to sink the Trojan Horse, it'll take significant amount of time even given his generous estimate of a month of muster time and any delays on his end could enable our prey to escape to a Federation or other UW stronghold before they can begin their operations, and this Alliance attack ship has also put a dent in my plans as its fighting strength is still relatively unknown." Char replied.

["Indeed that sounds like an issue… I have the Sixteenth fast battle flotilla under Vice Admiral Bittenfeld on standby… They'll join your hunt once they've finished resupplying, actually they should be undergoing their resupply in the Patalognia system, considering you'll end up there soon it should be a perfect time to talk strategy while you resupply."]

Chair raised an eyebrow as he exchanged a glance with Dren. "I would be honored to have the legendary Black Lancers accompany us on our hunt."

["Very well then, it shouldn't take them long to do so and transit to meet your group, even if you are unable to sink the Trojan Horse or this 'Legged Ship' even with their help, then my primary battle line should be able to pin it down for either us or the Grand Admiral's forces to finish off at our whim."] Garma stated confidently.

Char nodded, again anticipating a possible Federation trap by deliberately using one of their newest ships as bait but not voicing his concerns. It suited him just fine if the UW forces killed Garma and Dozle, it would be less of a weight on his conscience and it would bring him one step closer to his ultimate goal.

Bringing down Gihren Zabi.

["If that'll be all Char, I'm needed for a formal affair on Argentium, the board of directors of the Bem Corporation is hosting a Gala there in the hopes of ensuring their research labs remain out of the hands of our military."]

Char smirked. "Even Riah has more backbone than some people, good luck dealing with the politicians and bureaucrats Garma."

["Thank you Char, I'll probably need it."] Garma said before cutting the transmission.

"Bittenfeld… He's one of Reinhard's men correct…?" Dren asked.

"Indeed, my dear Dren…" His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. "My agreement with Reinhard still stands, he himself narrowly avoided being purged by Gihren's men or some toadying noble several times himself and neither of us have any reason to renege on it."

Dren nodded as Lieutenant Lino Fernandez walked onto the bridge. "I'll be taking over the watch from here Dren."

The heavyset man nodded at him and clapped the younger officer on the back. "Good luck, our intrepid Commander hasn't been able to get much sleep so keep the coffee machine running." He half-joked as he walked to the bridge lift.

"So, what's our new gameplan?" Lino asked as he walked up to Char.

Char smirked at him. "Harry the enemy into Bittenfeld's flotilla, if we fail then continue our original harassment objective to wear down the enemy for a final attack either by Garma's forces or Dozle's hunter-killer fleet."

"Sounds simple enough."

"Only on paper Lino… Only on paper." Char chuckled as the joint ZAFT/Zeon squadron began to accelerate towards the next jump point on the far edge of the Beta Falco system.


End file.
